^313.7  L  63 


LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


*^'^ 


Spanish  Peggy 


mmnm  of  Illinois 


YOUNG    LINCOLN    AT    THE    COOPER  S    SHOP 


a: 


Spanish  Peggy 

A  STORY  OF  YOUNG 

ILLINOIS 

BY 

MARY  HARTWELL  CATHERWOOD 


HERBERT  S.  STONE  &  CO. 
CHICAGO  &  NEW  YORK  1899 


COPYRIGHTED,   I  899,  BY 
HERBERT  S.  STONE  &  CO. 


1  * 


UH' 

UNIVERSm  OF  ILLiriOlS 
URBAWA 


•69348 


DON    PEDRO    LORIMER    AT    THE    SCHOOLHOUSE 


TO  SUE 

THE     DEAR    YOUNG    SECRETARY    WHO     GATHERED    THE     MATERIAL, 
AND    HELPED    ME     MAKE    THIS    STORY 


A 
o 

•O 

bo 
6M 


Oil 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
URBA?<A 


in 


-c: 


173,  7^ 4,3         z.,,,.^^,^. 


^  7^^  ridge  on  which  New  Salem  stood  has  not  now 

"^  one  log  upon  another.  The  trees^  the  grass.,  the  sky,  old 
^  witnesses  of  old  doings,  are  there,  as  they  were  in  Abraham 
^        Lincoln^ s  day ;  but  the  swarming  village  life  is  gone. 

However,  open  your  eyes  :  look  carefully,  and  you  may 
see  on  that  ridge  and  its  environment  this  story  lived  again. 


SPANISH    PEGGY 


A  BRAHAM  LINCOLN  lay  stretched  on  his 
^^L  stomach,  his  head  supported  by  his  hands, 
^^  "^^  facing  the  cooper's  fireplace.  A  blaze  of  shav- 
ings and  blocks  lighted  cobwebby  beams  overhead,  clean 
staves  and  hoop-poles  standing  around  the  wall,  the 
cooper's  work-bench  and  tools,  and  the  lank,  aguish  face 
of  a  man  who  sat  on  a  keg  beside  the  hearth,  holding  a 
book  from  which  the  young  student  recited.  The  shop 
had  part  of  a  log  left  out  in  the  side,  filled,  like  all  New 
Salem  windows,  with  oiled  paper  instead  of  glass.  Outer 
darkness  made  this  a  blurred  oblong  framed   by   logs. 

People  knew  that  the  cooper  let  young  Lincoln  turn 
his  shop  into  a  study  an  hour  or  two  every  evening,  and 
no  one  before  this  night  had  come  picking  at  the  latch. 

"The  string's  pulled  in,  Minter,"  said  Lincoln,  turn- 
ing his  head,  as  suppressed  laughter  and  a  shuffle  of  feet 
on  the  log  step  disturbed  his  recitation.  "  Never  mind 
the  boys;  they'll  go  away  pretty  soon." 

"  Maybe  the  Grove  fellows  have  come  to  town,"  said 
the  aguish  young  man  on  the  keg,  listening  anxiously. 
"They'd  as  lief  break  in  the  cooper's  paper  as  not." 

"  I   reckon  we'd  better  hurry,  anyway,"   urged   the 


Spanish  Peggy- 


student,  and  he  continued  repeating  as  rapidly  as  he  could 
the  remainder  of  the  lesson. 

Presently  with  a  click  the  door  turned  back  on  its 
wooden  hinges  and  bumped  the  wall. 

"I  know  you,  Slicky,"  declared  the  interrupted  scholar 
without  looking.  "Come  in.  Folks  wouldn't  give  you 
the  name  of  Slicky  Green  if  you  hadn't  a  way  of  getting 
what  you  want."  He  scooped  a  double  handful  of  blocks 
and  shavings  on  the  blaze,  and,  warned  by  some  unusual 
restraint  at  the  door,  hastily  drew  up  his  length  before 
the  fire.  It  showed  him  a  slim  giant  in  blue  homespun 
trousers,  which  did  not  quite  cover  his  ankles,  and  an 
open  roundabout  hanging  loosely  from  the  shoulders,  and 
betraying  the  fact  that  his  vest  was  buttoned  crooked. 
Seeing  a  stranger  on  the  threshold  with  the  boy  he  called 
Slicky,  Lincoln  ran  his  hand  through  his  dark  hair,  leav- 
ing it  tossed  in  every  direction. 

"  How  did  you  know  I  was  home  from  college,  Abe  ? 
Dick  and  I  rode  in  from  the  farm  on  purpose  to  see  you. 
This  is  Dick  Yates,  one  of  our  boys  from  the  Jackson- 
ville school.     Dick,  this  is  Abe  Lincoln." 

How  do  you  do,  Dick  ?  "  said  Abe,  offering  his  hand. 
How  do  you  do,  Abe?"  said  Dick,  seizing  it. 

"And  here's  our  schoolmaster,  Minter  Grayham," 
continued  Slicky,  presenting  the  pale  occupant  of  the 
keg.  Minter  rose  with  the  dignity  of  a  man  who  often 
pronounced  words  of  five  syllables.  The  mounting 
firelight  found  reflecting  threads  in  Dick  Yates's  bright 
auburn  hair.     The  schoolmaster  thought  him  a  beauti- 


es 


Spanish  Peggy 


ful  young  fellow,  with  modest  manners.  His  features, 
perfectly  modeled  and  rosy  as  a  girl's,  were  manly,  from 
full  forehead  to  outstanding  chin.  Though  of  a  robust, 
well-knit  figure  for  a  lad  of  eighteen,  his  head  barely 
reached  Lincoln's  shoulder  as  the  two  stood  looking  at 
each  other. 

"  I've  been  telling  Dick  so  much  about  you,  Abe,  that 
he  wanted  to  see  you,"  said  Slicky. 

Abe  blushed  and  Dick  blushed,  with  eager  friendli- 
ness and  recognition  of  power. 

"Are  you  studying  Blackstone?"  inquired  Dick,  indi- 
cating the  huge  book  which  Minter  Grayham  held  closed. 

"Yes.     It's  mighty  interesting  reading  to  me." 

"  I'm  going  to  study  law,  too.  But  it  scares  me  to 
death  to  begin  a  debate ;  and  Slicky  says  you  make  a  fine 
speech." 

"  If  I  ever  met  you  as  an  opponent,  I'd  want  some 
advantage.  S'pose  we  make  a  compact  to  work  together 
on  our  first  case  ?" 

"  Done  !  "  said  Yates.     "  It's  as  good  as  won." 

"  William  Green  !  "  spoke  a  girl's  voice  from  the  humid 
spring  darkness  outside ;  "  have  you  forgot  how  bad  the 
wolves  are  in  the  timber  we  have  to  ride  through  ^ " 

"Come  in,  girls!"  exclaimed  the  proprietor  of  the 
rough  study.  His  tutor  echoed  the  invitation.  "It's 
Abe's  recess.  Come  in,  Nancy  and  Ann  Rutledge,  and 
the  rest  of  you." 

Half  a  dozen  figures  emerged  from  the  night  of  the 
village  street,  bearing  Nancy  Green  company,  laughing 

3 


Spanish  Peggy 


and  half  reluctant;  and  let  themselves  be  coaxed  into 
sharing  a  long  bench  which  the  boys  drew  up  before  the 
fire.  It  was  like  an  invasion  of  swallows.  Abe  raked 
up  all  the  shavings  and  blocks  and  brought  them  to  the 
hearth.  A  festive  spirit  filled  the  place.  Nearly  all 
the  girls  were  bareheaded,  in  linsey  dresses.  They  had 
stepped  out  of  their  homes  along  the  winding  road  for 
the  mere  pleasure  of  being  abroad  and  free  from  tasks  at 
the  end  of  the  day ;  with  the  exception  of  Nancy  Green, 
and  Martha  Bell  Clary,  who  had  come  from  Clary's 
Grove  to  stay  all  night  with  Mahala  Cameron.  A  simi- 
lar group  of  young  people  in  a  French  cabin  would  have 
cleared  the  floor  directly  for  dancing,  all  the  merrier  for 
having  met  unexpectedly.  But  these  children  of  serious 
Massachusetts,  Tennessee,  Carolina,  and  Kentucky  pio- 
neers held  experience  meeting  instead.  The  state  was 
still  so  young,  and  their  knowledge  of  the  wide  world  so 
limited,  that  they  and  their  elders  took  primitive  delight 
in  telling  over  their  own  adventures.  The  oftener  a  story 
was  repeated  the  more  dignity  it  acquired. 

"Talking  about  wolves,"  said  young  Green,  when 
nobody  had  said  a  word  about  wolves  since  the  girls' 
entrance,  looking  at  his  sister  with  sly  enjoyment,  "  I 
was  going  afoot  to  the  mill  early  one  morning  last  sum- 
mer, and  met  two  in  the  path — a  black  one  and  a  gray 
one.  I  stood  still  and  looked  at  them,  and  they  stood 
still  and  looked  at  me.  I  knew  if  I  turned  to  run  they 
would  pull  me  down  in  a  minute.  Finally  I  whipped 
out  my  jack-knife  and  cut  a  rosin-weed,  and  lashed  at 

4 


Spanish  Peggy 


them,  yelling  with  all  my  might.     They  were  so  scared 
they  ran  like  sheep." 

"  Or  like  that  wagon  that  you  stopped  before  we  came 
to  Illinois,"  retorted  his  sister  Nancy.  "When  daddy 
was  going  to  move  from  Car'lina  he  bought  a  new  wagon. 
We  children  had  never  seen  such  a  thing,  and  we  climbed 
the  spokes,  and  William  took  hold  of  the  chain  on  the 
tongue.  The  wagon  started  down  hill,  and  everybody 
let  go  but  William.  The  tongue  ran  into  a  tree  and 
broke,  and  left  the  chain  in  his  hand.  *  I  was  going  to 
hold  on  if  it  killed  me,  mother,'  says  he.  *  For  if  that 
wagon  had  got  away,  how  were  we  going  to  move  out  to 
the  Illinois  ?' " 

"Speaking  about  sheep,"  continued  young  Green,  as 
if  he  had  not  heard  the  wagon  story,  "daddy  told  Nancy 
when  she  was  herding  the  sheep,  that  she  must  carry  a 
bag  with  her  and  save  the  wool  that  stuck  to  the  bushes. 
Our  old  ewe  was  tame,  and  it  was  easier  to  pick  the  wool 
off  her  back  than  to  hunt  through  the  bushes.  So  Nancy 
picked  the  old  ewe,  and  came  home  with  a  full  poke  two 
nights  hand  running.  The  first  night  daddy  praised  her ; 
but  the  second  night  he  found  it  out! " 

"I  wasn't  ten  years  old  then,"  remembered  Nancy; 
"  and  my  conscience  hurt  me  worse  the  first  night  than 
daddy's  punishment  did  the  second." 

"That  reminds  me,  Nancy,"  said  Lincoln,  "of  what 
your  mother  told  me  Slicky  did  when  he  was  about  ten 
years  old.  He  brought  in  some  frozen  eggs  and  raked 
out  the  coals  and  put  the  eggs  to  thaw  on  her  best  pewter 

5 


Spanish  Peggy 


platter.     She  said  when  she  found  the  melted  pewter  run- 
ning all  over  the  hearth  she  felt  discouraged  about  him !  " 

Ann  Rutledge  laughed,  and  flung  one  of  her  thick 
auburn  braids  behind  her  shoulder. 

"  Haven't  you  any  tale  to  tell  of  Abe,  Minter 
Grayham  ? " 

Minter  Grayham,  used  to  having  his  name  prolonged 
by  the  soft  Southern  drawl  with  gentle  familiarity,  smiled 
and  shook  his  head.  No  one  around  the  cooper's  fire- 
place had  a  sense  of  the  degradation  of  poverty  or  the 
triviality  of  any  human  experience.  Life  in  New  Salem 
was  full  of  zest  which  they  brought  from  Massachusetts, 
from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  and  Carolina  mountains, 
and  from  good  English  ancestry;  though  it  was  merely 
the  ordinary  pioneer  life  of  a  young  state. 

As  Abe  cast  on  more  fuel  and  the  blaze  flared  higher, 
a  scream  like  a  rabbit's  pierced  the  doorway,  and  some- 
thing writhed  over  the  step  on  the  puncheon  floor.  A 
furious  woman,  the  vision  of  a  witch,  with  beard  grow- 
ing tufted  on  her  long  chin,  whacked  the  writhing  object 
with  a  crutch  as  hard  as  she  could  plant  the  blows.  Ann 
Rutledge  screamed. 

"  Hold  on !  "  cried  Lincoln  in  two  or  three  long 
strides.  "  Don't  do  that !  "  He  received  on  his  arm 
the  last  stroke  of  the  stick,  which  the  woman  carried 
with  her  as  she  ran  from  'him. 

"Oh,  my  dear!"  said  Ann,  brushing  shavings  off  a 
little  girl  whom  she  helped  up  from  the  floor,  "  are  you 
hurt  ?  " 

6 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  Sally  got  me  that  time  !  "  the  child  answered,  hop- 
ping  to   balance   herself,   and  laughing  while  tears   ran 
down  her  cheeks.     "  She  took  my  crutch  from  me  so  I 
couldn't  run.      But  I   saw  this  door  open,  and  goody ! 
m  m ! 

"And  she  was  born  a  white  woman  !  "  cried  Ann  indig- 
nantly. "  Sally  Shickshack  behaves  like  a  savage !  You 
would  think  she  was  the  Indian  and  Shickshack  the 
white." 

"  I'm  nimbler  than  Sally  when  I  have  my  crutch," 
laughed  the  child,  still  weeping  through  her  laughter,  and 
trying  to  swallow  her  sobs.  Ann  and  Dick  Yates  helped 
her  to  the  cooper's  bench.  Piteous  and  courageous  as 
the  little  figure  was,  the  other  girls  looked  at  her  with  dis- 
favor, and  one  of  the  younger  Rutledges  whispered  to 
Mahala  Cameron  that  "a  certain  person  was  always  tag- 
ging Ann,"  as  if  resenting  interference  with  a  sister's 
privilege. 

"  Never  mind,  Peggy,"  said  Lincoln,  cheerfully. 
"Sally  will  make  a  man  of  you  if  hard  knocks  can  do 
it.     Where  are  Shickshack  and  the  boy  ?  " 

"They  haven't  come  in  from  hunting  yet." 

"And  Sally  took  the  opportunity  to  enjoy  herself." 

He  drew  his  own  large  bandanna  handkerchief  out  of 
his  pocket  and  kindly  wiped  the  child's  face.  She  hic- 
coughed in  her  effort  to  control  more  tears,  and  smiled  at 
him.  Ann  kept  one  arm  around  her,  and  brushed  down 
the  hair  which  straggled  to  her  shoulders.  Peggy  had 
a  colorless,  aquiline  face,  and  a  prominent  though  tiny 

7 


Spanish  Peggy 


mouth,  her  short  upper  lip  failing  to  quite  conceal  her 
teeth.  Her  dress  was  of  soft  tanned  deerskin,  and  showed 
by  its  lines  that  it  had  been  cut  out  by  a  masculine  knife 
instead  of  by  feminine  scissors.  There  was  scarcely  a  fold 
to  conceal  her  slim  shape,  and  its  scantiness  displayed  one 
moccasined  foot  hanging  down.  Her  other  foot  was  curled 
under  the  bench,  while  pointing  straight  at  the  fire  was  a 
wooden  leg  strapped  to  her  knee.  She  tried  with  careful 
hands  to  spread  the  skin  drapery  over  it. 

Dick  Yates  could  not  help  looking  at  her  with  curi- 
osity. Even  in  that  time  when  so  many  mixed  elements 
went  to  the  creating  of  a  settlement,  she  was  an  unusual 
figure.  Ann  Rutledge,  seeking  on  Peggy's  head  and 
back  the  welts  left  by  the  crutch,  noticed  the  inquiry  in 
his  eye  and  answered  it. 

"  She  is  not  Sally  Shickshack's  child,  or  Shickshack's, 
either.  They  have  been  in  New  Salem  only  a  little  while. 
He  is  a  Sac  Indian,  and  likes  to  live  among  white  men. 
His  white  wife  you  saw.  She  has  a  stepson,  I  think,  a  Cana- 
dian boy.  There  are  four  in  the  family.  Shickshack 
and  his  wife  have  no  children  of  their  own,  though  people 
say  she  was  married  twice  before.     He  is  a  good  Indian." 

The  good  Indian  that  moment  appeared  at  the  door 
with  his  wife's  stepson  behind  him.  That  he  had  almost 
come  upon  his  wife  in  the  act  of  using  the  crutch  was 
evident,  for  he  carried  the  crutch  in  his  hand,  and  had 
not  yet  unslung  from  his  back  a  full  game-bag.  His 
gun  he  rested  against  the  wall  within  the  door. 

"Come  in,  everybody,"  cried  young   Green.     "All 

8 


liVAmm  Of  iLLlNOfS 


Spanish  Peggy 


New  Salem  is  on  a  frolic  to-night.  Sally  has  just  been 
here  enjoying  herself,  Shickshack,  and  we  expected  you 
and  Antywine  would  follow." 

The  Indian  with  dignity  stepped  upon  the  puncheons, 
and  as  soon  as  he  saw  Peggy  a  look  of  satisfaction  relieved 
the  tension  of  his  face.  She  sat  still  within  Ann  Rut- 
ledge's  arm,  but  gave  the  men  of  her  family  an  affectionate 
glance.  Antywine,  who  had  probably  been  christened 
Antoine,  and  was  known  to  bear  the  name  of  La  Chance, 
kept  shyly  in  the  background,  lifting  himself  with  a 
graceful  spring  to  sit  by  the  vise  on  the  cooper's  high 
work-bench.  But  Shickshack  strode  forward  to  sit  in 
full  council,  as  became  his  age  and  character,  Minter 
Grayham  hastily  giving  him  the  keg. 

The  blaze  showed  his  moccasins  roughened  by  much 
tramping,  and  his  leggins,  fringed  down  the  outside  seams. 
But  Shickshack  had  compromised  with  the  white  man's 
dress  by  substituting  a  roundabout  for  a  hunting-shirt. 
This  was  buttoned  around  the  breech-cloth  girding  his 
waist,  but  stood  open,  showing  his  sinewy  red  neck  at  the 
top.  He  had  also  let  his  hair  grow,  and  it  made  a  black 
thatch  upon  his  head. 

Dick  Yates  gave  Shickshack  the  grave  salutation 
which  he  knew  an  Indian  loved.  The  Sac  fastened  his 
eyes  on  Dick  as  the  chief  man  at  the  fire,  and  the  one 
for  whom  perhaps  it  had  been  kindled.  Though  his  face 
did  not  betray  it,  he  was  pleased  also  to  hear  the  young 
pale  face  talking  to  Peggy  under  the  chatter  of  other 
voices. 

9 


Spanish  Peggy 


"You  have  as  much  spunk  as  a  boy,"  approved 
Dick.     "  I  like  to  see  a  little  girl  able  to  hush  up  crying." 

"  But  I  am  not  a  little  girl,"  said  Peggy.  "  I  am 
fifteen  years  old." 

"  Fifteen,  Peggy  !  You  can't  be  fifteen  !  I  thought 
you  were  about  ten." 

"  That's  because  I  am  so  little  for  my  age.  And 
my  name  isn't  really  Peggy." 

"They  called  you  Peggy." 

"That's  because  I  have  a  peg  leg.  My  own  name 
is  Consuelo  Lorimer.  And  I  have  another  that  the 
Sacs  called  me." 

Everybody  who  went  to  Minter  Grayham's  school- 
house,  knew  that  her  name  was  set  down  as  Consuelo 
Lorimer  on  his  book.  It  meant  nothing  in  New 
Salem,  but  Yates  heard  it  with  quick  interest. 

"Was  old  Don  Luis  Lorimer,  who  used  to  be  a 
Spanish  governor  down  the  river  a  long  while  ago,  any 
relation  of  yours?" 

Shickshack  on  his  keg  uttered  so  strong  a  grunt  that 
all  the  others  stopped  talking  and  listened. 

"  The  young  chief  knows  a  heap,"  said  Shickshack. 

"I  only  know  there  was  such  a  governor,  on  old 
Spanish  ground — part  French  himself,  but  his  wife  was 
pure  Spanish.  I've  been  to  Cape  Girardeau.  But  I 
don't  know  whether  he  has  any  living  descendants  or 
not. 

"  Last  grandchild,"  said  Shickshack,  indicating  Peggy. 
Her  eyes  moved  apprehensively  from  white  lad  to  Indian. 


lO 


Spanish  Peggy 


Then  you're  a  Spaniard,"  said  Dick. 
I'm  not  a  Spaniard!"  denied  Peggy,  facing  down 
the  accusation  vehemently.     "I'm  white!" 

"  Spaniards  are  white." 

"  I'm  white  Hke  folks  in  New  Salem,"  insisted  Peggy, 
repudiating  the  vague  foreign  taint.  She  saw  the  young 
Rutledges  and  Mahala  Cameron  and  Martha  Bell  Clary 
looking  at  her  suspiciously.  Spanish  governors  cut  no 
figure  in  the  imagination  of  New  Salemites. 

"  I  suppose  you  are  of  mixed  blood  and  really  ought 
to  be  called  a  Creole,"  pursued  Dick,  interested  in  the  case. 

"That's  a  kind  of  a  pullet,"  whispered  Martha  Bell 
to  Mahala. 

"I'm  not  of  mixed  blood  !"  cried  Peggy,  unable  to 
bear  any  more. 

"  Why,  everybody  here  is  of  mixed  blood  !"  asserted 
Dick,  and  that  was  a  comfort.  It  gave  her  the  chance 
to  look  back  at  her  antagonists. 

"  Have  you  never  told  her  that  she  was  Spanish?" 
Dick  inquired  of  Shickshack. 

The  silent  Indian  shook  his  head.  His  impassive 
face  glowed  in  the  firelight.  Young  Yates  seemed  to 
have  cast  a  spell  on  him.  From  the  contents  of  his 
heavy  game-bag,  which  he  had  unslung  as  he  entered 
and  left  beside  his  gun,  to  the  secrets  of  his  past,  he  was 
ready  to  lay  everything  he  owned  at  the  young  chiefs 
feet. 

"  How  did  the  Sac  brave  come  to  adopt  the  Spanish 
child  ?"  inquired  Dijck. 

II 


Spanish  Peggy 


Shickshack  silently  admired  his  knowledge  of  how  to 
address  a  Sac  brave  without  offensively  shouting  out 
that  brave's  name  in  public. 

"  No  father.  No  mother.  Me  hunt  with  her  father 
on  the  Platte.  Me  love  white  men  since  that  time. 
Never  in  my  life  me  shed  white  man's  blood.  When 
he  die  he  give  his  child  to  me." 

"Was  Peggy  lame  from  the  first?"  inquired  Ann. 

Shickshack  looked  at  her  steadily  without  replying. 
Then  he  shook  his  head. 

"  Me  love  white  men.  Me  marry  white  woman," 
he  answered ;  and  dropped  his  face. 

"  Does  he  mean  that  Sally  lamed  her  ?"  whispered 
Ann  to  Lincoln. 

"Sally  is  a  mighty  energetic  woman,"  admitted 
Lincoln,  smiling  from  the  hearth  corner.  A  huge  mole 
showed  in  the  crease  made  under  his  cheek  by  a  smile. 

"  Will  the  young  chief  be  here  to-morrow  ?  "  Shick- 
shack asked  Dick  Yates. 

"  No.    We  must  go  back  to  Jacksonville  to-morrow. " 

Slicky  Green  added  that  it  was  not  vacation  time. 
The  two  had  begged  a  day  off  on  account  of  his  extreme 
homesickness,  and  would  have  to  ride  early  next  morning. 

"  Me  like  to  talk,"  said  the  Sac,  fixing  his  gaze  on 
Dick.     "  Me  have  something  for  the  young  chief's  ear." 

"  We  can  take  a  walk  together  now,"  suggested  Dick. 

Shickshack  rose  up  at  once.  The  sheath  of  a  long 
hunting-knife  hung  down  his  side  by  a  leather  strap.  He 
had   kept   Peggy's  crutch  in  his  hand.     He  stood  it 


12 


Spanish  Peggy 


against  the  wall  beside  the  chimney,  and  Dick,  stepped 
over  the  bench  to  follow  him. 

"  Hello !"  shouted  a  cheerful  voice.  Two  horses 
were  brought  up  abreast,  facing  the  door,  their  hoofs  at 
the  very  step.  Light  shone  out  over  them  and  their 
riders,  revealing  the  weekly  mail-carrier  with  the  post-bag 
from  Springfield  bulging  on  each  side  of  his  saddle,  and 
his  leggins  splashed  with  mud;  and  a  stranger  having 
black  eyes  and  hair  and  mustache,  whose  entire  equip- 
ment was  foreign. 

Shickshack  stood  while  he  drew  one  breath  and  looked 
at  the  stranger.  For  the  first  time  a  Sac  war-whoop  was 
heard  in  New  Salem,  and  as  he  yelled  he  snatched  his 
hunting-knife  from  its  sheath. 


13 


HIV 

THE  whole  village  knew  before  bedtime  how 
Shickshack  had  threatened  the  stranger.  A 
community  of  interest  as  swift  as  the  telephone 
carried  news  the  length  of  the  winding  street. 

"  Shickshack  screeched  loud  enough  to  be  heard  at 
Wolf,"  gasped  Mahala  Cameron,  telling  the  tale  to  her 
folks,  "and  drew  his  knife  and  jumped  at  the  man  like  a 
wildcat !" 

"  And  Abe  Lincoln  and  the  other  boys  caught  him," 
put  in  Martha  Bell  Clary,  assisting  her.  "  The  man's 
horse  and  the  mail-carrier's  horse  both  reared  up — they 
were  scared  nearly  to  death  like  the  rest  of  us !  But 
just  as  soon  as  the  boys  caught  hold  of  Shickshack  he 
dropped  his  head  and  stood  like  he  was  ashamed." 

"He's  a  live  Indian  yet,"  said  Mahala  Cameron's 
father.  "  He'll  stir  himself  and  take  a  scalp  one  of  these 
days.     I  wonder  what  he  had  against  the  stranger  ?" 

Rutledge's  tavern  entertained  rare  travelers  who 
stayed  over  night  in  New  Salem.  The  candles  were  all 
put  out  early,  yet  before  folks  covered  their  fires  they 
had  in  some  way  absorbed  the  facts  about  the  new 
arrival.  He  was  a  well-spoken  man,  with  a  foreign  twist 
to  his  tongue,  inclined  to  laugh  at  the  rage  of  Shick- 
shack, whom  he  knew  very  well.     He  told  openlv  that 

H 


Spanish  Peggy 


he  was  Don  Pedro  Lorimer,  a  sugar  planter  from  the 
island  of  Cuba,  and  that  his  errand  through  the  States 
was  political  in  the  main ;  though  he  intended  when  other 
matters  pressed  him  less,  to  remove  his  half  wild  young 
cousin,  Consuelo  Lorimer,  from  the  care  of  the  Indian, 
who  had  taken  advantage  of  her  father's  death  on  the 
plains  to  adopt  her. 

A  tropical  sun  had  given  him  the  darkest  skin  ever 
carried  by  a  white  man  around  New  Salem.  He  walked 
abroad  in  the  early  morning ;  and  having  had  Shick- 
shack's  closed  house  pointed  out  to  him,  stood  and 
looked  at  it  smiling,  without  attempting  to  enter. 

The  Indian  and  his  adopted  daughter  were  not  seen 
abroad  during  that  day,  though  both  of  them  were  ac- 
customed to  live  outdoors  at  all  seasons.  Shickshack 
said  he  loved  to  see  the  deer  galloping  in  the  bottoms,  or 
to  watch  them  as  they  gathered  in  herds,  the  sun  shining 
in  their  eyes. 

New  Salem  was  a  single  long  and  winding  street  on  a 
high  ridge,  which  sloped  so  suddenly  on  both  sides  that 
all  the  gardens  ran  down  hill.  Seen  from  the  school- 
house,  it  looked  like  a  huge  wave  of  earth  riding  against 
the  northern  horizon.  The  schoolhouse,  standing  at  the 
base  of  another  ridge,  was  divided  from  the  village  by  a 
deep  ravine,  through  which  ran  a  small  stream  called 
Rock  Creek. 

The  schoolhouse  was  the  only  meeting-place.  Its  log 
stack  and  white  clay  chimney  represented  church,  town 
hall,  and  theater — if  so  godless  a  place  as  a  theater  had 

15 


Spanish  Peggy 


been  allowed — in  New  Salem.  It  was  headquarters  on 
muster  days,  and  the  arena  of  those  wordy  wars  which 
the  pioneers  called  debates.  Eager  to  hear  any  strange, 
new  thing,  the  whole  town  flocked  across  Rock  Creek  as 
soon  as  candles  began  to  bloom  like  primroses  at  dusk 
in  boot-shaped  sconces  on  the  schoolhouse  walls.  It 
might  be  that  the  cousin  of  Shickshack's  girl  had  not  as 
much  to  say  as  he  had  given  out  that  he  had.  But  New 
Salem  would  hear  him  and  judge.  Minter  Grayham's 
pupils — particularly  the  smaller  ones — were  lined  up  on 
front  benches,  which  their  own  long  use  had  worn  to 
the  smoothness  of  glass.  The  stranger  had  advertised 
through  their  schoolmaster  that  he  would  give  the  prize 
of  a  book  to  any  boy  or  girl  who  could,  at  the  close 
of  the  lecture,  stand  up  and  spell  correctly  the  word 
Ompompanoosuck ! 

Unusual  war  had  raged  on  the  playground  at  both 
recesses  and  noon  concerning  the  spelling  of  this  word. 
Camps  divided  to  play  Indian  or  Horsethief  met  to 
wrangle  over  combinations  of  letters.  Some  sly  ones 
who  thought  they  were  going  to  get  the  prize,  retired  to 
puzzle  alone.  Minter  Grayham,  who  taught  a  modest 
amount  of  spelling,  the  Testament,  the  English  Reader, 
and  the  Rule  of  Three  in  arithmetic  to  advanced  scholars, 
was  in  honor  obliged  to  look  as  ignorant  as  he  felt  in  this 
great  matter. 

Some  women  saw  with  consternation  that  the  boys 
from  Clary's  Grove  were  gathered  on  the  back  seats,  a 
couple  of  dozen  young  villains,  whose  leader,  Redmond 

i6 


Spanish  Peggy 


Clary,  was  the  most  desperate  rider  in  the  Sangamon 
country.  The  gravest  charge  brought  against  these  un- 
curbed youths  was  their  determination  to  govern  the  com- 
munity. In  them  the  hfe  of  the  frontier  found  its  wild- 
est expression.  When  one  of  them  had  a  colt  to  break, 
he  summoned  the  others,  and  they  forced  it  into  the  San- 
gamon River.  One  sat  on  its  back,  another  hung  to  its 
tail,  and  the  rest  clung  about  and  hampered  it  in  every 
way.  The  untamed  thing,  obliged  to  swim  for  its  life 
carrying  weight,  finally  came  out  of  the  water  a  subdued 
beast.  They  were  ready  to  deal  in  like  manner  with  any- 
thing that  antagonized  them.  Each  man  had  brought  an 
egg  carefully  bestowed  on  his  person,  and  at  a  concerted 
signal  he  expected  to  throw  it  at  the  lecturer,  for  the  mere 
sport  of  seeing  an  uninteresting  foreigner  smeared  from 
head  to  foot.     But  he  caught  their  fancy. 

Don  Pedro  Lorimer,  smiling  on  the  plain  men  and 
women  of  New  Salem,  told  them  he  was  traveling  through 
the  States  to  urge  everywhere  the  annexation  of  Cuba. 
He  described  the  tropical  luxuriance  of  Cuba,  and  its 
relative  position  to  the  continent;  and  some  of  his  hearers 
learned  for  the  first  time  that  there  was  such  a  place.  He 
told  how  planters  were  made  to  suffer  in  estate  by  unjust 
tyranny  of  a  dominating  European  power.  Some  like 
himself  had  even  been  driven  into  exile,  with  only  a 
remnant  of  their  once  large  fortunes.  So  bad  was  the 
government  that  people  starved  there  in  the  midst  of 
abundance.  He  begged  to  have  Cuba  admitted  into  the 
Union.     Such  a  novel  plea  had  never  been  urged  before 

17 


Spanish  Peggy 


upon  men  who  were  struggling  to  get  a  living  out  of  the 
scarcely  upturned  sod  of  a  new  State. 

Some  older  men  smiled  at  each  other,  thinking  the 
United  States  had  all  she  could  do  at  that  time  to  take 
care  of  her  own  territory.  But  it  was  flattering  to  have 
a  rich  island,  represented  by  an  elegant  man  of  the  world 
dressed  in  the  best  clothes  which  money  could  buy,  appeal- 
ing to  them  for  protection;  and  they  helped  their  neigh- 
bors stamp  vigorous  applause  every  time  he  rounded  one 
of  his  glowing  periods  with  —  "If  Cuba  may  only  be 
annexed  to  America!" 

Still  there  was  a  hard-headed  element  that  held  out 
against  the  stranger.  They  would  give  him  fair  play, 
but  they  would  test  his  arguments. 

"  Look  at  Abe  Lincoln,"  one  Carolina  settler  whis- 
pered to  another  during  the  stir  which  followed  the 
conclusion.  "I'd  like  to  hear  what  he  thinks.  He  can 
beat  this  fellow  all  hollow  making  a  speech." 

"Abe  says  the  fellow  looks  just  like  gamblers  he  saw 
in  New  Orleans  when  he  went  down  with  the  flatboat." 

"I  allow,"  said  a  third  Carolinian,  "and  I  have  been 
watching  him  close,  that  this  brown  gentleman,  with 
his  shiny  hair  and  eyes,  is  a  runaway  slave  putting  on  a 
bold  face  and  trying  to  get  through  to  Canada.  Some 
body-servant  that  knows  how  to  wear  his  master's 
clothes." 

"  What  spite  would  Shickshack  have  against  a  run- 
away slave  ?"  objected  the  first  man.  "And  his  hair  is 
as  straight  as  that  little  girl's  at  the  In'ian's  cabin.      I'd 

i8 


Spanish  Peggy 


sooner  take  him  for  a  horsethief.     We've  had  some  fine 
looking  horsethieves  in  this  part  of  the  state." 

Mahala  Cameron's  father,  who,  on  account  of  build- 
ing the  mill,  had  claimed  and  obtained  the  privilege  of 
naming  the  town,  and  had  called  it  New  Salem  for  old 
Salem  where  he  was  born  on  the  Massachusetts  coast, 
put  in  his  word. 

"  I  had  an  uncle,"  he  said,  "  that  followed  the  sea, 
and  made  voyages  to  Cuba.  It's  about  such  a  place  as 
the  man  describes." 

While  private  opinion  thus  see-sawed,  the  row  of 
Minter  Grayham's  pupils  on  the  front  benches,  roused 
from  drowsiness  to  keen  interest,  stood  up  at  the 
stranger's  bidding,  and  accumulated  the  worst  kind  of  a 
case  against  him.  For  however  they  attempted  Ompom- 
panoosuck — 

"  O-w-m,  owm  ;  p-o-w-m,  powm — * 
A-u-m,  aum  ;  p-a-u-m,  paum — " 
O-m,  om  ;  p-o-m,  pom;  p-y,  py,  ompompy — " 
it  was  not  right ;  and  the  audience  began  to  laugh  with 
appreciation  of  a  joke.  Martha  Bell  Clary  heard  her 
own  brother  Redmond  shouting  with  such  delight  as  she 
struggled  hopelessly  with  Ompompanoosuck,  that  she 
turned  and  made  what  was  called  in  New  Salem  "a 
mouth  "  at  him.  Though  the  lecturer  endeared  himself 
greatly  to  the  Grove  boys,  it  was  plain  he  had  only  put 
up  Minter  Grayham's  scholars  to  be  made  ridiculous 
before  their  parents  and  friends. 

"  I'd  hate  to  have  him  for  a  relation,  even  if  I  was  as 

19 


(C 


Spanish  Peggy 


bad  off  as  Peggy  Shickshack,"  whispered   Martha  Bell 
to  Mahala  Cameron. 

"So  would  I,"  responded  Mahala.  "I  don't  believe 
he  has  any  book  to  give  as  a  prize.  And  I  don't  believe 
he  has  any  plantation  in  Cuba,  either." 

Shickshack's  wife  came  in  late,  and  sat  by  the  school- 
house  door,  looking  steadily  at  the  speaker.  It  was  the 
first  time  the  village  had  ever  seen  her  at  any  meeting. 
The  women  nearest  were  more  occupied  in  being  repelled 
by  her  than  they  were  with  the  annexation  of  Cuba.  It 
surprised  nobody  that  she  should  come  out  to  hear 
Shickshack's  enemy.  But  it  surprised  some  who  de- 
parted slowly  after  the  dismissal  that  she  had  a  word  or 
two,  and  touched  hands  with  the  stranger  as  he  passed  by 
her  at  the  door.  An  unlovely  nature  had  worked  so 
long  on  features  striking  for  angularity  that  she  carried 
habitually  a  malignant  look.  The  boys  of  New  Salem 
liked  to  venture  on  Sally  Shickshack's  doorstep,  or  climb 
her  garden  fence,  and  have  her  chase  them  with  gourds 
of  hot  water.  Though  she  had  been  so  short  a  time 
in  the  village,  it  was  already  known  that  Antywine  La 
Chance,  a  former  husband's  son,  had  not  inherited  a 
fip'ny-bit  of  his  father's  property;  and  as  a  fip'ny-bit 
was  smaller  than  the  proverbial  shilling  with  which  heirs 
were  sometimes  cut  off,  it  was  plain  Antywine  La  Chance 
had  been  cheated  by  his  stepmother. 

Don  Pedro  Lorimer  mounted  his  horse  the  following 
morning,  and  took  the  eastward-stretching  road  which 
separated  north  and  south  beside  the  Sangamon.     He 

20 


Cf::;v:RS(TY  of  jllino/s 


THE    OAK    AND    THE    ELM    AT    NEW    SALEM 
Growing  on  the  spot  where  Lincohi's  store  stood 


Spanish  Peggy 


nodded  to  everybody  he  saw  along  the  narrow  street. 
His  departure  was  as  public  as  his  errand  had  been,  and 
a  notunkindly  feeling  went  with  him  and  would  welcome 
him  again.  For  a  man  who  traveled  around  at  his  own 
expense,  without  charging  a  price,  to  lecture  on  the  annex- 
ation of  Cuba,  must  be  in  earnest;  and  frontiersmen 
respected  a  person  in  earnest. 

Lincoln  usually  closed  his  store  soon  after  the  village 
supper-time,  in  order  to  recite  his  daily  lesson  to  Minter 
Grayham  in  the  cooper-shop.  Few  customers  were  so 
belated  as  to  need  anything  at  the  store  when  candles 
were  lighted.  Those  who  dropped  in  met  to  talk  and 
whittle;  and  since  the  nightly  study  blaze  had  begun 
to  show  in  the  cooper-shop  these  gossips  felt  obliged  to 
seek  another  rendezvous.  The  law  student  therefore 
found  himself  delayed  by  Shickshack,  who  entered  with 
Antywine  as  he  was  about  to  blow  out  the  lights. 

"What  shall  I  show  you,  Shickshack?"  said  Lincoln. 

The  Indian  looked  around  at  a  country  stock:  barrels 
of  New  Orleans  salt  and  sugar,  and  sacks  of  coffee ;  a 
few  scant  shelves  of  calico  ;  hoes,  rakes  and  shovels  ;  a 
grand  leghorn  bonnet  or  two,  of  mighty  brim  and  crown  ; 
threads,  needles  and  pins ;  and  all  the  simple  necessities 
of  people  on  the  edge  of  civilization.  He  shook  his 
head. 

"  Me  want  to  talk.     Shut  the  door." 

Lincoln  closed  the  door  and  sat  down  on  the  counter, 
drawing  up  his  knees  and  encircling  them  with  his  arms 
in  a  favorite  attitude  for  relaxing  chat ;  motioning  his 

21 


Spanish  Peggy- 


visitors  to  make  use  of  the  same  high  bench.  Shick- 
shack  got  up  and  curled  his  legs  under  him  Indian  fash- 
ion, but  Antywine  remained  standing  by  the  door.  Two 
candles  on  a  high  shelf  at  the  rear  cast  swaying  shadows 
of  the  white  man  and  the  red  man  and  the  crowded 
objects  in  the  little  store. 

"  I  reckon  all  New  Salem  is  talking  to-night  about  the 
man  you  were  going  to  kill  when  he  came  to  town." 

Shickshack  glowered  at  his  young  counselor. 

"  Me  wrong  to  give  the  war-cry.  Me  ought  to 
keep  still,  and  stab  him  in  the  dark  !  But  when  see 
that  man  me  forget  me  Christian  Indian!  " 

"  The  whoop  might  pass  muster  better  than  the  stab 
among  Christians,"  suggested  Lincoln. 

Shickshack  fixed  his  restless  black  eyes  like  the  eyes 
of  a  snapping-turtle  on  the  rugged  and  sincere  face  before 
him. 

"  Pedro  Lorimer  is  a  bad  white  man.  He  not  one 
of  Don  Luis'  sons." 

"  He  says  he  wants  Cuba  annexed  to  the  United 
States.     Is  he  a  Cuban  planter  ?  " 

The  Sac  uttered  a  contemptuous  grunt. 

"  No  !  No  planter.  No  Cuba.  He  is  New  Orleans 
man;  gambler." 

"  I  reckoned  so,"  said  Lincoln. 

"  Me  live  in  my  tribe's  country,  where  the  chief  Black 
Hawk  has  his  village.  Pedro  Lorimer  come  there  and 
trouble  me.  If  my  tribe  take  my  part,  all  the  people 
who  want  their  land  will  say,  *  These  Sacs  are  dangerous. 

22 


Spanish  Peggy 


Drive  them  out,'  So  Black  Hawk  say  to  me,  'You 
love  white  men :  go  to  Belleville.'  Me  go  to  Belleville. 
Think  me  marry  a  white  woman ;  she  help.  An  Indian 
cannot  get  a  very  good  white  woman.  But  me  see 
the  Widow  La  Chance,  and  Antywine,  her  husband's 
son.  Me  getting  old;  and  Antywine  is  young.  He  can 
take  care  of  the  child  when  me  die.  So  year  ago  me  marry 
the  Widow  La  Chance.  The  first  thing  she  hurt  the 
child.  And  Antywine" — Shickshack  uttered  the  words 
deliberately,  turning  his  head  toward  the  figure  at  the 
door — "  he  is  nothing  but  a  squaw  !  " 

Antywine  opened  the  door  and  went  out,  closing  it 
behind  him,  and  sitting  down  on  the  step. 

"  Pedro  Lorimer  follow  to  Belleville,  and  trouble  me 
there.  Me  come  away  to  New  Salem.  The  moon  has 
not  changed  four  times  since  me  come  to  New  Salem ; 
and  he  is  here  to  trouble  me  again  !  " 

"What  does  he  want? "  inquired  Lincoln. 

"  He  want  the  child's  money." 

"  Has  Peggy  money  ?     How  much  has  she  ?  " 

The  Indian  held  his  hands  less  than  a  yard  apart; 
the  length  of  a  full-grown  rattlesnake. 

"A  snakeskin  full  of  gold." 
What  have  you  done  with  it  ? " 
Me  hide  it  from  my  white  woman  and  Pedro  Lori- 
mer. Sometimes  me  think  she  divide  it  with  him,  if  he 
could  help  her  get  it.  All  day,  all  year,  she  want  that 
money  herself  But  she  take  what  is  Antywine's,  and 
was  his  father's,  and  give  him  nothing." 

23 


(I 


Spanish  Peggy 


"You  have  fed  and  clothed  Peggy  by  your  own 
labor." 

"She  is  my  adopted  child.  Me  send  her  to  white 
man's  school,  too.  Me  give  the  schoolmaster  four 
dollars." 

"  You  are  a  mighty  good  fellow! "  said  Lincoln.  "  But 
Pedro  Lorimer  is  gone  ;  so  what  troubles  you  now  ?  " 

"  He  come  back.  He  would  steal  the  child  to  make 
me  give  up  her  money  as  ransom.  He  would  take  her 
as  far  as  New  Orleans." 

"  Does  he  know  what  she  has  ? " 

"  No.  But  he  would  rob  her  of  the  last  piece  and 
leave  her  to  starve.  He  got  much  that  belonged  to  her 
people." 

"  Have  you  put  Peggy's  money  where  he  cannot 
find  it  ? " 

It  is  in  a  safe  place." 

Has  he  ever  made  any  attempt  to  carry  her  off?" 

"Me  not  let  him  make  attempt.     Me  watch." 

"  As  a  relative,  he  might  prove  that  he  had  a  right  to 
the  guardianship  if  he  were  a  fit  person." 

"What  a  white  man  want  he  can  take  from  an  In- 
dian!" 

"No,  Shickshack,  you  stand  your  ground  and  fight 
him.  If  he  troubles  you  again  in  this  community  count 
on  me  for  all  the  help  I  can  give.  Every  decent  man  in 
New  Salem  would  take  your  part." 

Shickshack's  face  relaxed  from  anxious  sternness  to 
satisfaction. 

24 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  Such  men  as  you  and  the  young  chief  Yates  and  the 
chief  Lorimer  make  an  Indian  want  to  live  with  white 
men." 

The  tavern  directly  across  the  street  had  its  windows 
open  to  let  in  the  soft  spring  night  air.  At  intervals  a 
chorus  of  bullfrogs  came  faintly  across  the  dark  from 
where  the  Sangamon,  swelling  with  freshets,  rose  frothing 
yeastily  toward  its  brim.  As  Peggy  hopped  on  her  crutch 
around  the  tavern  she  could  see  a  white  fog  floating  and 
changing  over  Rock  Creek  in  the  valley,  like  fairy  linen 
spread  to  bleach  by  starlight.  One  of  Rutledges'  deer- 
hounds  loped  up  from  the  stable  down  the  slope  to  bay 
at  her,  and  recognizing  the  intruder,  drew  back  at  once 
with  a  greyhound's  sensitive  apology. 

Near  the  east  side  of  the  house  stood  a  log  hand-mill, 
one  end  being  firmly  planted  in  the  ground,  the  other 
hollowed  by  burning  and  scraping.  The  pestle,  hanging 
from  a  long  pole  weighted  like  a  well-sweep,  was  a  knot 
of  hard  wood  spiked  with  nails,  and  had  a  crossbar 
handle.  In  this  primitive  mortar  parched  corn  could  be 
readily  pounded  to  meal.  A  deerskin  was  stretched  and 
fastened  snugly  over  the  top  to  keep  grains  in  when  the 
mill  was  in  use,  and  litter  out  when  it  stood  idle.  Peggy 
caught  hold  of  the  sweep  and  lifted  herself  to  a  seat  on 
the  hand-mill.  She  could  see,  through  a  deep  embrasure 
of  logs,  the  Rutledge  family  at  home.  The  tavern 
windows  were  movable  sashes,  with  the  tough  oiled 
paper  like  transparent  skin  laid  firmly  upon  them.  Part 
of  a  tree  smouldered  crimson  without  flame  in  the  white 

25 


Spanish  Peggy 


clay  chimney.  Shickshack's  wife  never  allowed  more  than 
one  candle  lighted  in  his  house.  M  rs.  Rutledge  drew  tallow 
tapers  out  of  candle  molds  and  filled  a  six-branched  can- 
delabrum of  old  English  silver.  It  stood  on  a  table 
surrounded  by  the  children  at  their  tasks,  and  the  father, 
reading  a  paper,  brought  in  the  weekly  mail.  The 
younger  girls  were  sewing;  Ann  sat  at  her  flax  wheel. 

"The  Rutledge  girls  can't  say  I'm  tagging  anybody 
now,  because  I'm  not  tagging,"  breathed  Peggy.  "But 
goody'!  I  can  watch  them  through  the  window!  " 

The  most  desirable  thing  in  the  world  was  to  be 
lovely.  She  looked  at  Ann  Rutledge,  to  whom  hearts 
were  given  on  sight.  An  ungraceful  movement  seemed 
impossible  to  Ann.  There  was  no  angle  in  the  lines  of 
her  tall,  supple  body.  Her  deep  blue  eyes  sometimes 
turned  golden  in  moments  of  happiness.  Unconscious 
that  any  outsider  watched  her,  she  lifted  them  and  smiled 
at  darkness  through  the  open  window.  The  passes  of 
her  hands  as  she  spun  and  the  sweetness  of  life  expressed 
in  her  face  brought  a  sob  up  Peggy's  throat. 

"Til  never  be  like  her,"  whispered  Peggy.  "I'm  a 
peg-legged  Spaniard,  little  for  my  age,  and  ugly.  I  can't 
spin.  I  can't  sew.  Sally  says  squaw  clothes  are  good 
enough  for  me,  and  Shickshack  has  to  cut  them  out,  and 
we  piece  them  together  as  well  as  we  can.  He's  done  it 
ever  since  we  left  his  people  and  have  had  no  Indian 
women  to  help  us.  I  can't  read  like  Ann  Rutledge  does. 
If  I  could  even  knit  I  could  make  stockings  for  Anty- 
wine  and  Shickshack.     They  are  the  only  men  in  New 

26 


Spanish  Peggy 


Salem  that  have  to  keep  on  wearing  neips  wrapped 
around  their  ankles  for  stockings." 

She  set  her  teeth  together  so  the  grating  was  audible. 
Something  stirred  behind  her,  like  one  of  the  hounds 
creeping  near,  but  she  paid  no  attention  to  it.  A  blanket 
dropped  over  her  head. 

Peggy  fought  it  with  both  hands,  hearing  the  crutch 
that  had  laid  across  her  knees  roll  to  the  ground.  This 
was  the  last  sound  she  heard.  Screaming  and  smother- 
ing in  the  muffling  folds,  she  felt  herself  dragged  off  the 
hand-mill  and  carried  away. 


27 


A  NN  RUTLEDGE  heard  through  the  open  win- 
L\  dow  Peggy's  muffled  cry  and  struggle,  and  ran 
-^  -^  to  the  door.  By  starHght  it  was  barely  possible 
to  see  a  shadow  fleeing  from  the  hand-mill :  but  Anty- 
wine  La  Chance,  in  pursuit  of  it,  passed  across  the  bar 
of  light,  a  lithe,  long-bodied  and  long-limbed  shape,  his 
uncovered  blond  hair  flying  back  from  a  face  cut  like  the 
high-bred  features  of  a  French  noble.  He  bounded  by 
the  hand-mill  and  crossed  a  fence  at  the  foot  of  the 
garden. 

When  Antywine  thought  he  was  about  to  overtake 
the  object  down  the  ravine,  a  scamper  of  horse's  hoofs 
sounded  through  the  valley.  Peggy's  captor  had  left  a 
horse  ready  for  flight.  Instead  of  making  southeastward 
for  the  Rock  Creek  bridge  and  the  road  to  Springfield, 
he  rounded  the  bluffs  and  the  village,  and  was  evidently 
striking  toward  Beardstown.  The  western  continuation 
of  New  Salem  street,  stretching  across  the  prairies  until 
it  met  and  curved  with  bluffs  along  the  Sangamon,  was 
the  route  to  Beardstown,  which  stood  at  the  junction  of 
the  Sangamon  with  the  Illinois. 

Light-footed  as  a  deer,  scarcely  pausing  to  think, 
Antywine  with  inherited  instinct  turned  east  toward  the 
river,  though  it  was  the  direction  opposite  that  in  which 

28 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


Spanish  Peggy 


Peggy  was  carried.  A  boat  could  be  found  at  the  mill. 
The  river  was  high  and  running  swiftly.  By  taking 
advantage  of  the  unusual  current  he  might  reach  the 
bluff  road  as  soon  as  a  horse  floundering  across  the  mud  of 
the  prairies  would  be  able  to  reach  it.  What  he  would 
then  do  afoot  he  did  not  attempt  to  foresee.  There  was 
a  small  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  Rock  Creek  called 
Wolf  Oxen  were  more  plentiful  than  horses  in  Wolf,  as 
in  New  Salem ;  yet  Antywine  had  one  passing  flash  of 
determination  to  go  there  and  demand  a  horse.  But 
breathless  with  haste,  he  plunged  through  naked  woods 
and  down  the  terraced  bank  of  the  Sangamon,  shding  on 
dead  leaves  in  his  descent,  straight  to  the  mill. 

The  boat  was  tied  above  the  dam.  He  pushed  out 
before  he  thought  of  the  dam,  half  covered  by  swelling 
water  and  roaring  across  the  width  of  the  Sangamon. 
Antywine  was  never  more  alive  than  when  his  feet  were 
planted  in  a  boat.  He  came  of  a  line  of  voyageurs  who 
had  threaded  Canadian  rapids  time  out  of  mind.  Al- 
though his  later  years  had  been  spent  in  Belleville,  off 
great  stream  courses,  his  inborn  dexterity  was  too  much 
a  part  of  him  to  be  forgotten.  There  was  no  time  for 
thought.  He  swooped  down  the  curve  poised  in  the 
stern  of  his  boat,  laughing  aloud  at  the  shock,  which 
nearly  swamped  him.  The  boat  ran  without  direction, 
making  for  partly  submerged  trees  while  he  bailed  with 
his  hands.  Antywine  stuck  out  an  oar  for  rudder,  and 
turned  his  craft  into  the  racing  current.  So,  baling  with 
one  hand  and  steering  with  the  other,  he  got  under  way, 

29 


Spanish  Peggy 


and  was  soon  able  to  sit  on  the  bench,  fit  the  oars  into 
rowlocks,  and  pull  with  the  racing  force  which  spun  him 
along.     Branches  and  logs  menaced  his  dim  course. 

The  shores  were  black.  Froth  spots  like  white  money 
appeared  and  disappeared  around  him  with  phosphoric 
swiftness.  And  underneath  rose  and  fell  the  bullfrogs' 
diapason. 

Not  many  miles  down  was  the  fork  of  the  Sangamon, 
where  the  stream  turned  toward  the  Illinois.  Beards- 
town,  by  prairie  and  river-bluff  route,  was  nearly  forty 
miles  from  New  Salem.  Frost  was  out  of  the  ground, 
and  a  bottomless  trail  would  delay  the  most  hurried  rider. 
The  scalloped  bank,  ascending  and  descending  in  ser- 
rated cliff  and  hollow,  seeming  to  swim  past  Antywine, 
finally  curved  away  from  a  wider  current ;  and  he  made 
for  shore  through  drift.  He  drew  the  boat  out,  and  left 
it  beached  above  the  rising  water. 

There  was  no  sound  abroad  in  all  that  void  darkness 
except  the  Sangamon's  low  note  and  the  intermittent  cry 
of  frogs.  He  thought  of  sloughs  on  the  Beardstown 
road,  and  of  hungry  wolves  infesting  the  night.  Starlight 
had  become  lost  in  thickening  mist,  and  as  Antywine 
pushed  on  he  felt  the  sting  of  rain  in  his  face.  He  tried 
to  distinguish  a  track  which  ought  to  darken  the  pallid 
turf  near  this  place,  and  set  out  in  the  direction  of 
Beardstown. 

He  heard  at  his  left  the  suction  of  horse  feet  in  mud. 
It  came  nearer,  and  he  braced  himself  to  spring  at  the 
bridle,  if  he  had  been  so  fortunate  as  thus  to  intercept 

30 


Spanish  Peggy 


Peggy's  captor.  But  two  horses,  instead  of  one,  plunged 
up  from  a  slough,  and  swept  past  him  in  a  tearing  race 
toward  Beardstown. 

"Shickshack  and  Sieur  Abe,"  thought  Antywine. 
He  shouted  after  them,  but  they  did  not  hear  him. 
There  was  so  little  travel  at  that  season  he  felt  sure  these 
riders  were  in  pursuit  of  Peggy,  and  comforted,  he  fol- 
lowed lightly  on,  keeping  to  the  spongy  dead  grass  by 
the  roadside. 

The  humid  forest  stretching  from  the  bank  of  the 
Sangamon  still  darkened  his  way  with  skeleton  trees. 
He  passed  an  empty  cabin  which  he  had  seen  once  before 
when  hunting  deer.     The  rain  now  began  to  pelt. 

Though  he  had  lived  so  long  among  English-speak- 
ing people  at  Belleville  that  their  language  had  become 
in  a  measure  his  own,  Antywine  never  found  himself 
able  to  part  with  buckskins.  The  hunting  shirt  was 
sometimes  exchanged  for  one  of  linsey,  but  buckskin 
breeches,  molding  his  supple  limbs  down  to  his  mocca- 
sins, he  always  wore,  making  them  himself,  as  his  father 
had  done  before  him.  Indifferent  to  weather,  he  stepped 
on  through  darkness  and  was  within  hand's  reach  of  an 
unsteady  object  before  he  saw  it. 

Antywine  gave  a  laughing  shout  to  scare  a  wolf  and 
followed  it  by  an  exclamation.  He  lifted  the  toppling 
figure  in  his  arms  and  ran  back  with  it  to  the  empty 
cabin. 

Peggy  had  a  blanket  around  her,  but  she  was  wet  and 
cold  and  seemed  partially  stunned.     The  puncheons  or 

31 


Spanish  Peggy 


split  logs  which  floored  the  cabin  sagged  inward  as  if  a 
sill  had  rotted  at  the  farther  side,  and  the  chimney  was  a 
ruin  upon  its  own  hearth.  Perhaps  wolves  or  wild  hogs 
made  this  place  a  lair.  Antywine  had  not  his  tinder  box 
with  him.  It  was  impossible  to  get  a  light.  The  fallen 
door  he  dragged  aside  from  its  opening  and  made  a  seat 
for  Peggy. 

"Stay  here,  sweetheart,"  spoke  Antywine,  using  an 
English  word  which  he  did  not  quite  understand,  but 
translated  in  his  own  mind  as  "little  one." 

He  made  the  circuit  of  the  walls,  kicking  his  way  in 
the  dark,  satisfying  himself  that  no  beast  housed  with 
them.  Then  he  sat  down  on  the  door  where  he  could 
shelter  Peggy  from  the  wind. 

"Are  you  hurt,  sweetheart?" 

Peggy  found  her  voice  with  a  laugh.  "Goody! 
you've  come,  Antywine !  I  was  trying  to  walk  without 
my  crutch  when  you  picked  me  up.     I  had  to  hop." 

"  How  you  happen  where  I  find  you  ? " 

"I  don't  know.  The  horse  stumbled  and  fell  down, 
and  maybe  I  was  pitched  on  my  head.  This  blanket  was 
round  me  so  tight  that  I  fought  to  get  my  mouth  and 
nose  and  hands  out.  It  seemed  like  there  were  a 
dozen  horses  racing,  and  I  thought  they  would 
all  run  over  me.  But  when  I  got  up  I  was  beside  the 
road,  and  could  just  hear  the  mud  splashing  away  off." 

"  Who  is  it  that  steal  you  ? " 

"  Of  course,  it  must  have  been  that  Pedro  Lorimer  man, 
though  I  couldn't  see  him,  and  only  heard  his  voice  when 

32 


s 


Spanish  Peggy 


he  spoke  to  the  horse.  He  threw  a  blanket  over  me  and 
made  me  ride  on  the  horse's  neck,  and  I'm  so  little  and 
lame  I  couldn't  help  myself.    Are  you  cold,  Antywine?" 

"  No,"  he  answered,  with  a  Canadian's  indifference. 
But  Peggy  gave  him  a  corner  of  the  blanket  and  bade 
him  draw  it  around  his  shoulders,  which  he  did. 

The  rain  beat  upon  shingles  and  spouted  from  the 
cabin  eaves.  There  was  snugness  in  being  housed  after 
so  much  anxiety  and  exertion. 

"  We  wait  here."  The  boy  laughed  quietly  to  him- 
self. "  Shickshack  say  to  Sieur  Abe  Lincoln,  'Antywine, 
he  is  nothing  but  a  squaw.'  But  I  find  you,  and  Shick- 
shack have  not." 

"  Did  he  call  you  a  squaw?" 

"  Me,  yes ;  he  call  me  that." 

"  You  are  like  a  woman,  Antywine,"  said  Peggy,  after 
considering.     "  I  want  you  to  be  like  a  woman." 

"  Tonnerre  !     Why  ? " 

"  Because  you  are  like  one." 

Antywine  turned  this  illogical  reason  in  his  mind. 

"  How  can  we  go  home,  Antywine?" 

"We  wait,"  he  replied,  "until  Shickshack  and  Sieur 
Abe  come  back.  They  ride  the  horses  you  think  will 
run  over  you,  and  they  not  see  you  in  the  dark.  They 
chase  the  man  to  Beardstown." 

"Are  you  sure?  " 

"  I  think  so." 

Peggy's  mind  at  once  turned  back  to  New  Salem. 
I  wonder  what  Sally  will  do  when  we  get  home." 

33 


a 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  It  Is  that  woman  that  make  a  squaw  of  me,"  said 
Antywine.  "  Since  my  father  marry  her  she  has  been 
worse  than  a  loup-garou.  I  not  mind  the  fist  or  the 
stick — bah ! — but  her  evil  eye,  and  the  beard  on  her  chin 
— saints!  I  am  crawl  all  over!  It  is  not  healt'y  to  be 
scare  all  the  time!  I  wear  a  charm  against  her.  When 
she  take  Shickshack  I  think  I  will  go  to  my  father's 
peop*  in  Canada.  But  if  I  do  she  will  have  nobody  but 
you  when  she  is  enrage.  And  see  what  is  done  to  you 
when  we  are  but  out  of  the  house,  sweetheart!" 

Peggy  busied  herself  in  silence  and  threw  an  object 
from  her  which  bounded  among  the  chimney  ruins. 

"  I  am  not  going  to  be  a  peg-leg  any  more, "  she 
announced.  "I'll  not  strap  that  wooden  leg  to  my  knee 
again. " 

"  But  you  not  able  to  walk,"  said  Antywine.  "  I 
carry  you,"  he  added,  in  afterthought. 

"  Shickshack  will  take  me  on  the  horse  when  he 
comes.  It's  so  ugly.  Don't  you  think  a  peg-leg  is  ugly, 
Antywine? " 

"  I  have  not  consider,"  he  responded;  adding,  with 
French  grace,  "not  anything  that  belong  to  you  is 
ugly." 

"  My  month,"  suggested  Peggy.  "  It  will  not  shut." 

"It  is  like  the  wild  plum,"  said  Antywine,  "when 
the  white  bud  is  just  break  through." 

Though  they  had  been  housemates  almost  a  year, 
Peggy  and  Antywine  felt  that  they  were  just  discovering 
each  other.    The  tall,  silent  lad  had  once  in  a  while  ven- 

34 


Spanish  Peggy 


(( 


tured  on  some  kindness  to  the  girl.  There  was  be- 
tween them  the  whimsical  sympathy  of  companions  in 
misery. 

"And  I  am  so  little,"  continued  Peggy,  after  a  silence. 
People  think  I  am  only  ten  years  old.     Ann  Rutledge 
is  large  and  beautiful." 

"  Mam'selle  Ann  Rutledge,"  responded  Antywine,  "is 
too  large  to  be  carry.  You  are  not  too  large  to  be  carry." 

"But  I  want  to  be,"  insisted  Peggy. 

"  Me,  I  think  you  will  grow,"  conceded  Antywine, 
indulgently. 

"  Do  you  think  I  will  always  be  lame  ? " 

"I  not  know.     The  doctor  in  Belleville  cannot  say." 

"  The  doctor  in  Belleville  put  that  peg-leg  on  my 
knee.  Sometimes  I  think  if  I  try  to  use  my  leg,  Anty- 
wine, it  will  grow  stronger.  But  I  have  to  hop  yet  when 
Sally  takes  my  crutch  from  me." 

"Shickshack  think,  and  me,  I  think  too,  she  have 
bring  that  lameness  on  you." 

"  I  never  contradicted  her  when  she  told  him  it  was  a 
fall ;  but  she  knows  when  she  struck  me  and  how  it  hurt. 
Don't  tell  him,  Antywine.     Shickshack  is  so  good." 

"  She  not  fool  me,"  said  Antywine.  "I  think  now  I 
will  give  you  my  charm  to  keep  off  evil." 

"What  is  it?" 

He  took  her  hand  in  the  darkness  and  laid  a  small 
image  on  the  palm.  She  knew  it  was  something  which 
their  religion  taught  them  to  venerate. 

No,  Antywine,  I  will  not  take  it  from  you." 

35 


i( 


Spanish  Peggy 


"Keep  it,"  he  insisted.  "I  feel  better  when  I  am 
out  hunting  if  you  have  that  around  your  neck.  She 
bring  evil  into  the  house.  She  is  worse  than  the  Chasse 
Galerie." 

"  What  is  the  Chasse  Galerie  ?  " 

"  Have  you  never  hear  of  the  Chasse  Galerie  that  fly 
across  the  sky  at  night  ?" 

"How  could  I  hear  about  such  things  in  the  Sac  vil- 
lage or  at  Belleville?" 

Antywine  proceeded  at  once  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
wild  huntsman  and  his  dogs,  and  their  chase  above  the 
clouds.  This  led  on  to  feux  follets,  or  balls  of  fire, 
into  which  bad  spirits  turned  themselves  to  lure  sinners 
into  quagmires.  Then  loup-garous,  or  man-wolves, 
made  darkness  flame  with  their  eyes,  to  Peggy's  imagi- 
nation. 

"Are  your  feet  or  hands  cold?"  Antywine  inquired 
once  in  a  while.  Peggy  answered  "No,"  forgetting  she 
had  hands  and  feet,  her  large,  excited  gaze  fixed  on  the 
wonder-world  of  folk-story.  His  voice  abounded  in 
sympathetic  tones.  It  was  full  and  golden,  reaching  into 
distance  or  sinking  to  monotones  as  he  half  told  and 
half  sung  his  people's  legends. 

So  hour  after  hour  passed;  rain  continued  to  pour 
down  the  shingles  and  visit  them  in  gusts  of  spray 
through  the  broken  chimney. 

It  was  a  dehcious  experience  to  remember  a  lifetime. 
But  as  Peggy's  responses  became  few,  Antywine  stretched 
out  his  legs  and  made  a  pillow  of  his  lap  with  a  corner 

36 


Spanish  Peggy 


of  the  blanket,  to  which  her  drowsy  head  came  readily- 
down.  He  watched  and  she  slept  until  darkness  faded 
to  the  pallor  of  dawn. 

The  noise  of  horses'  feet  in  the  heavy  road,  for  which 
he  had  waited  so  long,  could  at  last  be  heard  approach- 
ing. He  withdrew  carefully  from  the  head  of  the 
sleeper,  and  went  out  to  intercept  the  riders. 

They  were  splashed  with  mud  and  jaded,  moving  side 
by  side,  their  tired  horses  snorting  flakes  of  foam.  Thus 
more  than  once  the  men  of  New  Salem  had  come  back 
from  chasing  horse-thieves,  less  ready,  perhaps,  to  give 
the  details  of  the  exploit  than  were  Shickshack  and  his 
companion.  Both  drew  rein  when  they  saw  Antywine, 
and  he  told  them  directly  where  Peggy  was. 

Shickshack  asked  where  he  found  her.  He  pointed 
to  the  road  beyond  the  cabin,  and  in  his  brief  Canadian- 
English  repeated  what  had  happened. 

"  Your  squaw  boy  doesn't  put  up  many  fizzlegigs  and 
fireworks,  but  he  seems  to  be  worth  two  men,"  observed 
Lincoln. 

His  lank  hair  dripped  moisture.  He  was  haggard 
with  hard  riding. 

"You  catch  the  man?"  inquired  Antywine. 

"  No,"  Shickshack  answered  in  disgust. 

"  You  know  him  ? " 

"  No.     Me  not  care  now." 

"  He  winked  out,"  said  Lincoln.  "We  lost  him  this 
side  of  Beardstown.  The  closest  view  we  had  was  when 
we  nearly  ran  him  down  back  here.     We  intended  to 

37 


Spanish  Peggy 


raise  a  party  and  hunt.  I  reckon  you  better  bring  the 
little  girl  now,  so  we  can  get  home  to  breakfast." 

Shickshack's  red  face  revealed  itself  through  growing 
daylight  polished  like  copper.  He  gave  a  strong  grunt 
of  satisfaction  when  Antywine  set  Peggy  behind  him  on 
the  horse.  The  Canadian  boy  mounted  lightly  to  a  seat 
behind  Lincoln,  and  as  they  rode  toward  New  Salem  a 
clear  whiteness  like  the  promise  of  fair  weather  appeared 
in  the  east.  Water  hung  beaded  on  the  stems  of  trees, 
but  a  great  commotion  of  robins  came  out  of  the  woods. 

It  was  the  general  opinion  in  the  village  that  Don 
Pedro  Lorimer  had  "done  it."  Why  he  should  put 
himself  to  the  inconvenience  of  trying  to  carry  off  such  a 
poor  little  thing  many  declared  they  could  not  under- 
stand. All  day  Lincoln  was  visited  at  the  store  by 
inquiring  friends,  who  sat  on  counters  and  salt  barrels 
and  interrogated  him  about  his  night's  ride.  He  joked, 
as  any  man  among  them  would  have  done,  about  the 
hard  service  taken  out  of  borrowed  horses,  instead  of 
dwelling  on  the  Indian's  affairs  and  the  labors  of  the 
night.     Lincoln  had  the  strength  of  three  ordinary  men. 

"I  allow,"  said  one  of  the  Carolina  settlers,  "that  it 
was  an  ornary  trick  of  one  of  them  Grove  boys." 

"  I  guess  you  are  wrong  there,"  put  in  a  Massachu- 
setts man,  "The  Grove  boys  know  better  than  to  pick 
the  runt  out  of  a  litter.  If  one  of  them  wanted  to  steal 
a  girl  he  wouldn't  go  so  nigh  the  tavern  and  stop  on  the 
outside." 

The  outrage  was  resented  as  a  municipal  indignity, 

38 


Spanish  Peggy 


whoever  had  attempted  it ;  but  it  stirred  less  resentment 
than  it  would  have  stirred  had  any  other  young  maid  in 
New  Salem  been  the  sufferer.  It  was  talked  about  a 
fortnight  with  zest  and  much  repetition.  By  the  end  of 
a  month  it  was  still  good  material,  when  women  took 
their  knitting  and  visited  one  another  of  afternoons.  But 
by  muster  day  other  slow  happenings  had  covered  it. 

If  Sally  knew  more  about  it  than  any  one  else, 
she  kept  the  secret.  The  Sac  brave  often  fixed  his  eyes 
on  her  with  speculation  in  them. 

"In  my  tribe,"  he  said  once  to  Lincoln,  "a  warrior 
can  take  a  tent-pole  and  beat  his  squaw,  or  he  can  give 
her  plenty  goods  and  drive  her  out  of  his  wigwam.  But 
me  marry  white  woman ;  me  have  to  stand  her  like 
white  man." 

He  was  at  first  concerned,  and  questioned  Peggy 
about  the  loss  of  her  wooden  leg. 

"  I  will  not  wear  it,"  she  repeated,  stubbornly.  "  It 
hurt,  and  I  threw  it  away." 

She  hopped  about  the  street  on  her  crutch,  which  Ann 
Rutledge  had  found  by  the  hand-mill  the  night  the  alarm 
was  given,  her  injured  leg  hanging  straight  beneath  the 
deerskin  garment.  Some  change  in  her  was  noticed,  even 
by  her  schoolmates. 

"Who  cut  Peggy  Shickshack's  hair,  Viane  Rut- 
ledge  ? "  inquired  Nancy  Green,  when  the  girls  sat  out- 
doors with  their  dinner  reticules  the  first  warm  day.  The 
budding  woods  were  then  alive  with  bees. 

'Ann,"  responded  Ann's  younger  sister,  with  asperity. 

39 


(( 


Spanish  Peggy 


"We  have  her  tagging  to  our  house  all  the  time,  now.   I 
allow  the  Indians  might  as  well  move  in  with  us." 

"  Shickshack's  wife  doesn't  visit  the  neighbors,  does 
she  ? " 

"  No.  She  stays  at  home  and  heats  water  to  scald 
the  boys  with." 

"  Peggy  looks  nicer  with  her  hair  cut  straight  around 
below  her  ears  and  combed  smooth.  And  I  am  glad  she 
lost  her  wooden  leg  when  Satan  or  something  tried  to 
carry  her  off." 

"  My  brother  Red,"  exclaimed  Martha  Bell  Clary, 
"told  me  the  horse  blanket  that  was  throwed  over  Peggy 
Shickshack  that  night  smelt  of  brimstone!" 

"Your  brother  Red,"  retorted  Nancy  Green  with 
impatience,  "  gets  threatened  with  brimstone  so  much  in 
meeting  that  he  smells  it  on  everything !  " 

"  Well,  how  do  you  suppose  the  boat  Antywine  La 
Chance  went  down  the  river  in,  got  back  to  the  mill  by 
morning,  when  he  rode  home  on  horseback  ?  " 

"Antywine  brought  it  back  himself.  Part  of  the  way 
he  pulled  the  boat,  and  part  of  the  way  he  rode  horse- 
back. You  get  such  stories  in  the  Grove!"  said  Mahala 
Cameron. 

Martha  Bell  wagged  her  head  and  looked  at  Peggy, 
sitting  apart,  eating  corn  bread  in  solitude.  She  was  glad 
to  be  Martha  Bell  Clary  instead  of  Peggy  Shickshack. 
None  of  the  girls  meant  to  be  cruel.  They  wished  Peggy 
well,  but  made  her  understand  she  was  not  as  other 
daughters  of  New  Salem. 

40 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  We  all  thought  she  was  queer  before  we  found  out 
she  was  a  Spaniard,"  said  Martha  Bell. 

"You'd  be  queer,  too,"  exclaimed  Nancy  Green,  "if 
you'd  been  born  a  Spaniard  and  raised  among  the  Sacs, 
and  dressed  always  like  a  squaw." 

"  But  I  wasn't." 

"  Peggy  can  talk  the  Sac  language  just  like  Shick- 
shack,"  remarked  Mahala.    "  Let's  get  her  do  it  for  us." 

"Shickshack  won't  let  her,"  objected  Ann  Rutledge's 
sister.  "  He  wants  her  to  learn  English.  He  says  she 
learned  to  speak  English  in  a  year." 

"  Humph !  "  commented  another  of  the  group,  resent- 
fully;  "the  master  shows  partiality  to  Peggy  Shickshack, 
so  he  does ;  but  I  wouldn't  be  her,  if  she  is  the  best 
reader  in  school." 

This  first  really  warm  noon  of  the  budding  year, 
while  Peggy's  schoolmates  were  looking  at  and  talking 
about  her,  Antywine  stood  at  the  open  tavern  door  wait- 
ing to  speak  to  Ann  Rutledge.  Too  bashful  to  knock, 
he  shifted  from  one  moccasin  to  the  other,  hoping  that 
some  kind  saint  would  send  Ann  to  the  door  to  inquire 
what  he  wanted.  He  had  a  parcel  in  his  left  hand,  and 
sometimes  held  it  before  him  and  sometimes  hid  it  behind 
his  back,  keeping  his  right  hand  ready  to  uncap  himself 
if  she  appeared.  There  was  not  anything  in  the  woods 
or  on  the  prairie  which  Antywine  feared.  But  Ann  Rut- 
ledge  represented  to  his  mind  the  power  of  society;  and 
he  was  coming  to  sue  that  power.  She  entered,  singing, 
from  an  inner  room,  and  paused,  throwing  her  long  braids 

41 


Spanish  Peggy 


behind   her   back   when   she   saw   the    Canadian    at   the 
door. 

He  snatched  off  his  cap,  standing  erect,  narrow  of  hips 
and  shoulders  and  full  in  chest,  an  elegant  lightness  of 
make  and  grace  of  carriage  setting  him  apart  from  Eng- 
lish-Americans, and  fixed  his  wistful  blue  eyes  upon  her. 
Come  in,  Antywine  La  Chance." 
No,  mam'selle.     I  will  stand  here." 
Did  you  want  to  see  any  one  ? " 
I  want  to  see  you." 
''  Here  I  am."     The  girl  dimpled  at  his  embarrass- 
ment. 

"  Mam'selle,  I  have  to  ask  of  you  a  favor.     Will  you 
do  me  the  kindness  to  look  at  what  I  bring  in  my  hand?  " 


42 


iriD 

FROM  the  back  yard  of  more  than  one  New  Salem 
home,  where  soap-making  and  gardening  were 
going  forward,  azure  smoke  rose  over  pink  coals 
of  wood  and  old  vines.  The  whole  world  was  getting 
ready  to  be  new.  Ann's  own  winter  linsey  was  laid  aside. 
She  wore  something  which  made  her  look  like  a  blossom 
to  the  eyes  of  the  boy. 

Antywine  gave  her  the  parcel  and  stood  abashed  while 
it  was  unrolled,  revealing  yards  of  dark  red  and  yellow 
calico,  the  colors  alternating  in  tiny  flecks  which  globed 
themselves  to  pomegranates.  Ann  had  noticed  it  in  the 
store  as  a  most  daring  attempt  in  cotton  printing.  Some 
balls  of  thread  fell  out  and  Antywine  picked  them  up. 
"  It's  for  Peggy,  isn't  it  ?  " 
Yes,  mam'selle." 

Did  you  buy  it  yourself,  Antywine  ?  " 
"  I  have  some  money  that  I  make  in   Belleville,"  he 
apologized.     "  Shickshack  and  the  woman  have  not  got 
some  tas'e  in  clothes  for  young  girls.     You,  mam'selle, 
have  that  tas'e." 

"If  you  think  I  really  have,  Antywine,  you  must  let 
me  help  Peggy  make  this  dress." 

"Oh,  mam'selle!     It  is  what  I  would  ask,  but  dare 
not !  " 

43 


Spanish  Peggy 


'*  I  would  love  to  do  it,  and  Peggy  will  be  so  glad  to 
have  a  new  dress." 

Peggy  was  glad  when  Ann  waylaid  her  in  the  evening. 
Her  face  quivered  and  she  said,  "Goody!  "  She  talked 
the  great  event  quite  out  with  Antywine,  standing  beside 
their  cabin,  because  they  seldom  spoke  to  each  other  in 
the  presence  of  Shickshack's  wife.  Then  there  was  the 
joy  of  going  to  the  tavern  and  learning  neat  stitches 
while  Ann  cut  and  basted  and  fitted.  The  slow  process 
of  hand  sewing  went  on  a  part  of  every  day,  as  the  two 
girls  had  time,  until  Peggy,  by  the  accident  of  Anty- 
wine's  choice,  stood  at  last  unconsciously  arrayed  in  the 
colors  of  Spain.  The  garment  was  gathered  to  her  slim 
figure  under  the  bust,  whence  escaping  fullness  hung  as 
low  as  her  ankles.  This  short-waisted  look,  and  the 
gorgeous  setting  of  colors  for  her  pale  olive  skin,  and  her 
hair  cut  in  the  fashion  of  the  Middle  Ages,  suddenly  devel- 
oped in  her  a  charm.  People  noticed  her,  and  said  that 
she  was  not  exactly  growing  pretty,  but  there  was  some- 
thing to  her.  The  confidence  of  knowing  how  to  do 
things  appeared  in  her  face.  For,  having  begun  with  the 
needle,  Ann  Rutledge  went  on  to  knitting  and  spinning. 

Ann  had  pretty  clothes,  for  her  father  never  rode  to 
Springfield  without  bringing  her  a  gift,  and  her  mother 
even  indulged  her  with  a  cassimere  pelisse  modeled  after 
one  worn  by  the  doctor's  wife,  who  came  a  bride  to  New 
Salem.  Viane  saw  with  some  resentment  her  elder  sister 
take  things  which  had  usually  fallen  to  her  and  cut  them 
over  for  the  Indian's  adopted  daughter.     Thus  Peggy 

44 


Spanish  Peggy 


became  transformed  in  every  garment  except  her  mocca- 
sins. To  these  heelless,  quill-embroidered  shoes  she 
clung  with  the  instinct  of  a  wilderness  lover.  They  were 
light  and  soft  and  small,  hampering  her  no  more  than 
her  own  muscles.  Anty  wine  made  them  for  her  when  he 
made  his  own.  In  return  she  knitted  woolen  stockings 
to  keep  him  and  her  foster  father  warm  in  winter. 

When  Peggy  first  learned  to  knit  she  pulled  the  yarn 
so  tight  that  the  stocking  leg  stood  above  the  needles  as 
stiflFas  a  board  triangle  and  had  to-be  raveled  anddoneover. 

"You're  not  building  stake-and-ridered  fences  for 
your  men  folks,"  laughed  Ann. 

Shickshack's  wife  gave  Peggy  many  tasks  to  do,  but 
in  a  house  where  there  was  no  home-making,  strewn  with 
the  appointments  of  a  dirty  camp,  the  tasks  were  sordid 
and  often  useless.  Sally  let  pots  and  kettles  litter  the 
hearth,  and  her  cob  pipe  dropped  ashes  into  a  pinner 
hanging  on  the  crane;  the  joists  were  grimy,  and  dust 
stood  thick  on  the  pewter  she  got  with  her  first  husband 
and  was  too  stingy  to  use.  But  her  splint-bottomed 
chairs  had  to  be  scoured  with  soap  and  sand  every  week, 
and  she  made  the  lame  girl,  in  deerskin  dress,  creep  inch 
by  inch  over  the  puncheon  floor,  cleaning  it  by  the  same 
hard  process.  When  the  weather  was  bad  Peggy's  tasks 
were  doubled,  and  her  struggle  with  marks  of  New  Salem 
clay  became  hopeless. 

Shickshack's  wife  never  seemed  to  look  up ;  plodding 
along  the  street,  her  sullen  eyes  fixed  on  the  ground,  she 
exchanged  no  word  with  a   neighbor.     Shickshack's  dis- 

45 


Spanish  Peggy- 


gust  was  extreme  with  sordid  housekeeping  he  had 
nowhere  encountered  in  an  Indian  village. 

The  changes  in  Peggy  Shickshack  were  not  without 
influence  on  her  schoolmates,  but  the  Spaniard,  with 
pride  of  her  own,  held  aloof  from  them.  They  swung 
their  feet  from  tall  benches  and  whispered  behind  their 
books  while  -Peggy  fiercely  studied.  When  the  Testa- 
ment class  stood  up  she  was  at  the  head.  Her  progress 
through  the  simple  course  was  so  rapid  that  Minter 
Grayham  calculated  she  would  know  in  a  year  all  that  he 
was  able  to  teach  her. 

Antywine,  whose  stepmother  had  never  sent  him  to 
school,  was  nineteen  years  old,  and  could  not  read. 
Peggy  began  to  teach  him  during  the  long  spring  twi- 
lights. There  was  a  large  stone  halfway  across  the  valley, 
sheltered  as  the  sun  slipped  north  of  afternoons,  under 
which  Peggy  hid  her  outgrown  lesson  book  for  Anty- 
wine. Whatever  direction  his  day's  hunt  led  him,  he 
made  a  detour  to  arrive  at  the  stone,  and  if  he  arrived 
first,  sat  down  to  study.  If  Peggy,  carrying  her  dinner 
reticule  home  from  school,  reached  it  first,  she  waited. 

They  sat  and  held  the  book  together.  English  spell- 
ing provoked  Canadian  exclamations;  but  he  had  to  spur 
him  not  only  Peggy,  but  the  powerful  example  of  Sieur 
Abe  Lincoln,  studying  every  spare  minute. 

Antywine  knew  where  the  best  swimming  places  were 
in  the  Sangamon.  Sometimes  he  came  to  his  lesson,  his 
blond  hair  separating  into  dark  clinging  tendrils,  which, 
as  they  dried,  became  a  powder  of  gold-shot  curls  around 

46 


Spanish  Peggy 


his  face  and  temples.  If  Peggy  could  not  keep  her  fingers 
from  touching  this  fleece,  Antywine  pretended  he  did  not 
know  it.  His  hands  and  shoulders  worked  as  hard  as 
his  mind.  With  shrugs  and  gesticulating  fingers  he  flung 
English  spelling  all  around.  When  he  encountered  a 
terrific  word  he  would  throw  down  the  book  and  jump  on 
it.  But  Antywine's  moccasins  were  light;  he  did  not 
damage  the  learning  under  his  feet.  His  rages  were  all 
rages  of  laughter.  Whatever  he  did  so  delighted  Peggy 
that  she  said: 

"  It  makes  me  almost  laugh  out  in  school  to  think 
how  you  dance  on  your  speller  !  " 

As  month  followed  month  and  Pedro  Lorimer  neither 
showed  himself  again  in  New  Salem  nor  made  any  other 
attempt  to  kidnap  the  Indian's  adopted  daughter,  her 
guardian's  anxiety  relaxed  to  ease.  He  thought :  "These 
white  men  in  this  village  are  my  friends ;  they  will  take 
my  part.  The  young  chief  Abe  is  as  strong  as  three 
Pedro  Lorimers,  and  his  hand  is  with  me." 

Every  Sunday  Mahala  Cameron's  father  preached  in 
the  schoolhouse,  and  nearly  all  the  people,  whether  they 
accepted  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  creed  or  not,  went 
to  the  service.  Wild-plum  groves  made  bouquets  of 
snow  on  the  prairies.  The  woods  were  full  of  flov/ers, 
having  such  fragrance  as  breaks  only  from  old  loam.  All 
the  trees,  from  the  rich  green  of  the  pecan  to  the  delicate 
and  slowly  deepening  maple  gave  out  their  foliage  to  the 
sun.     The  Judas  tree  burst  out  like  flame  in  the  forest. 

Happy  boys  were  seen  coming  home  from  the  river 

47 


Spanish  Peggy 


of  evenings  with  strings  of  croppies,  bass,  and  pike.  Half- 
yearly  muster  day  came,  when  the  local  militia  stepped 
out  in  awkward  squads  and  practiced  such  military  tactics 
as  the  leader  knew  to  the  squeak  of  a  fife  and  the  thump 
of  a  drum.  Antywine  put  himself  among  the  boys.  He 
liked  life  and  movement.  But  Shickshack  stood  and 
looked  gloomily  on.  He  knew  that  his  own  people,  the 
Sacs,  were  being  crowded  in  their  reservation,  and  this 
play  of  war  might  sometime  become  reality.  Whisky 
was  plentiful  on  muster  days.  Antywine  noticed  that 
Lincoln  did  not  touch  it.  Having  considered  the  height 
and  strength  of  Sieur  Abe,  he  also  spat  out  of  his  mouth 
a  taste  of  fiery  stuff  pushed  between  his  lips  by  a  Grove 
boy,  and  decided  that  he  would  fight  rather  than  be 
forced  to  drink. 

Slicky  Green  and  Ann  Rutledge's  brother  were  home, 
working  in  their  fathers'  fields.  Young  Yates  was  seen 
at  intervals  during  the  summer.  The  boys  and  girls  of 
New  Salem  found  a  world  of  material  for  their  own  hap- 
piness. There  were  quiltings,  where  the  older  women 
labored  in  the  afternoon  and  young  men  and  women 
came  to  evening  games. 

Peggy  Shickshack  stood  outside  of  such  festivities, 
and  so  did  Antywine,  because  the  singular  mother  of 
their  household  had  no  fellowship  with  the  mother  of 
any  other  household.  For  all  the  villagers  began  to  look 
kindly  at  the  unfolding  womanliness  of  the  lame  Span- 
iard, the  blond  head  of  Antywine,  and  the  good  old 
Indian  who  loved  white  men. 

48 


Spanish  Peggy 


But  the  festival  that  Peggy  Hked  best  and  was  not 
left  out  of,  was  blackberrying.  The  girls  rose  at  dawn 
and  put  on  their  worst  clothes,  meeting  by  appointment 
at  the  tavern  with  baskets  on  their  arms.  They  did  not 
speak  loud.  The  dust  in  the  road  took  the  prints  of 
their  feet  like  ashes.  The  whole  sweet-smelling  world 
was  drenched  in  dew,  and  as  they  brushed  down  the 
ravine  and  across  to  the  woods  beyond,  they  were  bap- 
tized by  every  bush.  Then  their  tongues  were  loosened, 
and  they  sang  and  told  stories.  Sometimes  they  pre- 
tended to  see  wolves  sneaking  to  cover,  but  this  was 
merely  for  the  pleasure  of  frightening  themselves.  It 
was  the  loveliest  pilgrimage  ever  invented.  There  was 
peril  in  it,  too,  for  in  the  wooded  field  of  wild  brambles 
the  thick-mottled  rattlesnake,  or  objects  resembling  him, 
caused  many  a  start  and  shriek. 

Once  little  Jane  Rutledge  got  a  fat  grasshopper  down 
her  back,  and  yelled  for  deliverance  from — "a  snake!  a 
snake!" 

"Oh,  run  home,  Jane!  Run  home,  quick!"  cried 
Mahala  Cameron. 

But  Ann  tore  the  child's  clothing  open  and  freed  the 
grasshopper,  clinging  with  all  his  feet  to  the  tender  white 
back ;  and  they  all  laughed  at  Mahala,  who  would  have 
sent  her  three  miles  for  help. 

Sometimes  the  girls  swam  grass  to  their  waists,  as  in 
a  sea  of  dew,  Peggy  dividing  her  way  with  her  crutch. 
The  rising  sun  showed  glittering  in  the  brambles,  black- 
berries and  luscious  dewberries   half  as  long   as    one's 

49 


Spanish  Peggy 


thumb,  melting  ripe  to  keep  that  very  morning's  appoint- 
ment. To  go  blackberrying  late  in  the  day  was  not  to  go 
blackberrying  at  all,  but  to  a  hot  and  weary  search  of 
rifled  fields. 

When  the  party  trailed  homeward  with  heaped  baskets 
they  could  see  along  the  ridge  of  the  Sangamon  tents  and 
camps  of  farmers  who  had  come  long  distances  to  mill. 
Each  man  was  obliged  to  wait  his  turn  to  have  his 
grain  ground.  It  was  like  a  fair.  Quoit  pitching, 
wrestling  matches,  races,  and  trading  filled  up  the  idle 
time. 

Insensibly  the  season  changed.  Sumac  leaves  began 
to  burn  around  scarlet  fruit  veiled  in  white,  the  oaks 
were  faintly  tinted,  and  the  first  September  days  had 
come. 

Antywine's  reading  lessons  at  the  stone  ended,  for 
Lincoln  was  taking  up  surveying  and  going  out  to  dis- 
tant parts  of  the  county,  and  Antywine  was  to  go  with 
him  as  his  chain-bearer. 

"  I  put  the  book  in  my  bundle,"  said  the  Canadian 
while  he  and  Peggy  were  bidding  each  other  farewell  at 
the  stone.     "Sieur  Abe  will  help  me." 

Peggy's  hands  and  feet  became  cold.  She  felt  as  if 
autumn  were  driving  the  blood  back  upon  her  heart. 

"  Viane  Rutledge  told  at  school  the  other  day  that 
you  are  the  best-looking  young  man  in  New  Salem." 

Antywine  expanded  with  satisfaction.  He  always 
carried  his  chin  up,  so  that  people  called  him  high- 
headed. 

50 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  I  am  tall." 

"  Don't  you  think  Viane  Rutledge  is  a  pretty  girl, 
Antywine?" 

"Yes." 

"  She's  the  prettiest  girl  that  goes  to  school,  isn't  she?" 

"Yes." 

Tears  sprang  into  Peggy's  eyes;  she  winked  them 
back,  ashamed  of  being  grieved. 

"  But  Viane  Rutledge  is  not  a  good  reader,"  she  hon- 
estly declared. 

"  Me,  I  am  not  a  good  reader,  eitheir,"  observed 
Antywine. 

"You  don't  want  to  put  yourself  alongside  of  Viane 
Rutledge  as  a  poor  reader,"  spoke  Peggy,  sharply — "  do 
your 


"  I  don't  know,"  returned  Antywine,  with  a  teasing 
winsomeness  specially  his  own.  He  smiled  on  the  land- 
scape and  lifted  his  chin  higher,  a  look  of  concern 
replacing  the  smile. 

''Why  you  cry,  sweetheart?  " 

"  My  foot's  tired,"  said  Peggy,  drying  her  tears. 

"  You  been  trying  to  walk  without  the  crutch  ? 

"A  little." 
Then  I  carry  you  up  to  the  house." 
I  don't  want  you  to.  If  Mahala  Cameron's  brother 
was  here  he  could  help  you  make  a  saddle  and  carry  me. 
He  takes  hold  of  hands  with  one  of  the  Clary  boys,  and 
they  lift  me  up  on  the  saddle  and  run  with  me  when  we 
play  Indian." 

51 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  He  have  no  business  !  "  exclaimed  Antywine,  full  of 
indignation.      "  They  will  fall  and  hurt  you  !  " 

"O,  no,  they  won't.  He  is  a  nice  boy,  and  has  such 
red  cheeks." 

"  Me,  if  I  have  those  red  cheeks  I  strip  the  skin  off 
my  face!"  said  Antywine,  disgusted.  "You  like  those 
red  cheeks,  eh? " 

"  Well,  I  think  they  are  about  as  pretty  as  Viane 
Rutledge." 

"Viane  Rutledge,"  spoke  Antywine,  sincerely,  "she 
not  have  that  charm  like  you,  and  those  manners." 

"  Do  you  think  I  am  learning  manners  ? " 

"You  have  improve  every  day." 

"Antywine,  I've  got  the  best  apple  in  my  pocket ! 
Don't  you  want  a  bite  of  it  ?  " 

"  Did  those  Cameron  boy  give  you  that  apple  ?  " 

"  No." 

"You  have  it,  then,  from  that  Grove  feller,  who  is 
behave  so  bad  the  master  whip  him  ?  " 

"  No.     Mahala  gave  it  to  me." 

"  Then  I  will  take  some  bite." 

Peggy  drew  forth  the  apple  and  they  ate  it  together, 
feeling  that  their  differences  were  reconciled.  It  was  their 
parting  meal,  for  food  eaten  at  Sally's  board  had  no  such 
taste  as  this. 

Shickshack  said  nothing  about  Antywine's  first  serious 
undertaking  of  civilized  work.  The  boy  until  that  time 
had  been  nothing  but  a  hunter.  Perhaps  the  Indian 
pondered  on  the  white  man's  influence.     He  set  himself 

52 


Spanish  Peggy 


to  bring  in  plenty  of  venison  to  dry  for  winter,  and  an 
abundance  of  buckskin  to  tan.  His  cabin  was  as  good 
as  any  in  New  Salem. 

Shickshack  held  land  in  his  reservation,  as  all  his  tribe 
held  it,  without  cultivating  or  improving  an  acre  except 
patches  of  maize  and  pumpkins.  He  could  not  under- 
stand the  white  man's  greed  of  real  estate  when  the 
prairies  were  so  free  to  all.  The  product  of  his  labor 
consisted  of  peltries.  These  he  exchanged  for  the  neces- 
saries of  simple  living. 

Shickshack  was  not  unmindful  of  the  change  in  his 
adopted  child.  He  used  to  watch  her  silently.  When 
she  brought  him  the  first  pair  of  stockings  made  by  her 
hand  he  sat  and  smoothed  them  across  his  buckskin  knee. 
They  were  useless  to  him  as  a  covering,  for  he  could  not 
enjoy  the  freedom  of  his  ankles  in  anything  but  hunter's 
neips. 

Before  the  weather  grew  cold  he  gave  Peggy  a  roll  of 
heavy  dark  red  linsey  cloth  instead  of  the  usual  tanned 
deerskins.  Ann  Rutledge  helped  her  cut  and  make  the 
dress.  He  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  her  warmly  clad, 
in  short-waisted  gown  with  bag  sleeves  and  a  thick  cape 
and  hood  lined  with  dull  yellow  flannel  which  Ann  had 
saved  among  her  stores. 

As  autumn  days  drew  close  to  the  margin  of  winter, 
the  big  boys,  relieved  of  labor  that  they  owed  to  their 
parents  every  working  season  until  they  were  twenty-one 
years  old,  came  to  Minter  Grayham's  school.  Though 
willing  to  make  themselves  useful  carrying  in  logs  for  the 

53 


Spanish  Peggy 


fireplace,  they  were  full  of  frolic  as  colts.  They  stirred 
up  the  school  until  Minter  Grayham  in  despair  made  a 
new  law  and  announced  that  he  would  listen  to  no  more 
complaints  of  wad-throwing,  fisticuffing,  and  fighting, 
unless  the  complainant  could  show  that  blood  had  been 
drawn.  Then  the  boys  were  gloriously  happy.  The 
sallow  young  schoolmaster,  writing  copies  at  his  high 
desk,  would  suddenly  hear  through  the  drone  of  study: 

"  Master,  Viane  Rutledge  looked  at  me  and  drew 
blood ! " 

"  Master,  Nancy  Green's  eyes  are  drawing  blood  on 
me  this  minute  I  " 

In  November  there  was  a  haze  over  the  landscape  like 
bloom  on  grapes.  Indian  summer  lingered.  Settlers  had 
not  then  learned  the  Mississippi  Valley's  sudden  and 
bitter  changes  of  climate. 

Lincoln  and  Antywine  were  still  absent  early  in 
December,  when  Shickshack  waited  one  evening  behind 
Minter  Grayham's  schoolhouse  for  Peggy  to  come  out. 
A  jet  of  boys  and  girls  seemed  to  spout  forth,  racing 
down  to  Rock  Creek.  They  could  almost  smell  their 
supper  johnnycakes  across  the  ravine.  Peggy  was  hop- 
ping briskly  in  the  joyful  midst  of  her  schoolmates,  when 
she  saw  her  foster  father  beckoning  her  at  the  foot  of  the 
bluff.     She  followed  him. 

Shickshack  led  her  where  there  was  no  path  through 
ascending  woods,  parting  naked  bushes  for  her,  and  help- 
ing her  over  fallen  logs  which  had  become  almost  a  pow- 
der of  flakes  covered  with  moss. 

54 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  Where  are  we  going  ? "  she  inquired  more  than  once. 

But  Shickshack  made  no  reply  until  he  had  put  a  loop 
of  deerskin  around  him  over  his  blanket,  and  lifted  Peggy 
on  his  back  in  this  portable  hammock.  She  was  learning 
to  use  her  lame  leg  with  a  stoical  determination  which 
the  New  Salem  doctor  encouraged.  Though  never  with- 
out her  crutch,  she  oftener  carried  than  leaned  on  it. 
Shickshack  was  evidently  undertaking  a  journey,  and 
she  looked  anxiously  through  the  woods  as  some  flakes 
of  snow  melted  on  her  face,  and  up  at  the  void  peopled 
as  by  winged  white  insects. 

"  Father,"  said  Peggy  in  the  Sac  language,  "  where 
are  you  taking  me  ?  " 

"  To  the  young  chief  Yates,"  he  answered  in  English, 
trudging  across  the  ridge,  sure-footed  and  muscular. 

"  But  he  lives  far  away,  and  I  won't  go  !  What  will 
Antywine  and  Mr.  Lincoln  say  when  they  come  home  ?  " 

"  Antywine  and  the  chief  Abe  on  the  survey  trail. 
They  not  here  to  stop  Pedro  Lorimer.  He  get  you 
this  time." 

"  Has  he  come  back  again  ?  " 

Shickshack  grunted.  "At  the  Grove  —  two,  four 
days.  He  tell  the  young  braves  Black  Hawk  is  on 
the  war  path.  Drive  out  old  Indian  !  Burn  his  wigwam  ! 
Old  Indian  help  Black  Hawk.  Me  not  need  totem  signs 
to  find  out  what  he  want.  He  say  old  Indian  have  no 
business  to  keep  white  girl." 

"  But,  father,  you  cannot  carry  me  so  far  !  "  Peggy 
strongly  revolted.     She  wept,  shivering  against  his  back. 

55 


Spanish  Peggy 


He  descended  toward  a  darkened  plain  without  heeding 
her  arguments  against  his  course,  except  to  assure  her 
he  intended  to  hire  a  horse  at  the  first  cabin. 

The  sloughs  were  frozen,  and  frost-blackened  grass 
crisped  under  his  feet.  Nowhere  could  any  farmhouse 
light  be  seen,  and  the  gentle  flicker-like  insect  wings  had 
become  a  driving  storm  of  snow.  Shickshack  found 
the  road  stretching  southwest  toward  Jacksonville,  and 
plodded  steadily  along.  Jogging  through  an  immensity 
of  night  and  cold  and  drifting  whiteness,  Peggy  ceased 
to  beg  that  he  would  let  her  walk,  and  lapsed  into  such 
drowsiness  that  he  was  obliged  to  shake  her  when  he 
set  her  down.  By  that  time  the  chill  windrows  were 
nearly  to  his  knees.  Unsheltered  by  his  body,  she  felt 
the  dry  spume  spinning  in  her  face. 

"  Me  have  to  put  you  in  the  log  to-night,"  said 
Shickshack.     "  Snow  too  bad  to  go  farther." 

Every  New  Salemite  had  heard  of  or  seen  the  huge 
hollow  log  strangely  left  upon  the  prairie  beside  that  road. 
Once  Slicky  Green  and  another  boy,  belated  on  a  bitter 
night  while  searching  for  lost  cattle,  had  driven  wild  hogs 
out  of  it,  and  saved  their  own  lives  in  its  roomy  hollow. 
It  loomed  a  white  ridge,  higher  than  Peggy's  head, 
its  black  opening  already  banked  with  drift.  Shickshack 
crawled  in  with  his  knife  unsheathed.  A  yelping,  snarl- 
ing struggle  was  muffled  by  the  log,  until  something 
dark  leaped  past  Peggy,  and  ran  across  the  snow. 

"  Wolf,"  observed  the  Sac.  "  Him  not  like  to  leave 
him  good  bed." 

56 


Spanish  Peggy 


Reluctantly,  in  spite  of  the  cold,  Peggy  crawled  past 
him  into  the  deep  shelter,  dragging  her  crutch.  Her 
hand  touched  something  furry,  and  green  eyes  shot  flame 
at  her.  Shickshack  haled  a  cub  from  its  cushion  of  rotten 
wood  and  threw  it  out  after  its  mother. 

Peggy  was  so  drowsy  that  she  remembered  nothing 
further  of  the  night,  except  some  noises  at  the  open  end 
of  the  log. 

When  she  awoke  it  was  light  enough  to  see  overhead 
the  ridged  vault  of  her  wooden  cavern.  The  snow  cast 
in  a  pallid  illumination.  She  sat  up  and  called  Shick- 
shack. He  remained  in  a  rigid  attitude,  with  his  back  to 
her,  and  his  legs  extending  out  under  a  white  lapful.  His 
arm  was  hard  as  marble  in  her  hand  when  she  touched 
him,  and  he  did  not  turn  his  head. 

"Father!"  she  screamed.     "  Father!  " 


57 


ID 

THE  old  Sac,  who  had  guarded  her  rooftree, 
whether  cabin  or  wigwam,  every  night  of  her 
remembrance,  sat  upright,  holding  his  knife, 
on  which  frozen  blood  was  crystallized.  Two  or  three 
dead  wolves  lay  outside  the  log  on  the  snow.  But  not 
.one  of  them  was  frozen  stifFer  than  the  Indian,  who, 
after  his  own  fashion,  had  given  life  itself  for  the  safety 
of  his  adopted  child. 

Peggy  would  not  believe  he  was  dead.  She  clung 
to  his  solid  shoulders,  and  screamed  to  rouse  him. 
The  Sac,  who  loved  white  men,  and  had  never  failed 
to  answer  the  appeal  of  his  white  child,  silently  blocked 
the  entrance  of  the  log.  His  eyebrows  were  hoar  frost, 
and  the  dark  ruddiness  of  his  face  and  neck  seemed 
crusted  with  rough  silver. 

Peggy's  wild  crying  might  have  resounded  long  in  the 
hollow  log,  and  brought  no  person  to  help  her.  For  all 
around  was  the  vast  prairie  stretching  from  horizon  to 
horizon,  a  glare  of  whiteness  unpierced  by  the  smoke 
of  a  single  fire.  But  two  figures  toiled  toward  New  Salem 
through  the  early  cold,  wading  with  effort,  and  finally 
making  for  the  hummock  in  which  they  recognized  the 
submerged  log.    Lincoln  and  his  chain-bearer  encountered 

58 


Spanish  Peggy 


the  frozen  Indian  and  the  crying  girl  as   they  stooped  to 
enter  and  warm  themselves. 

High  as  drifts  were  piled  in  New  Salem  streets,  for 
this  was  the  winter  known  long  afterward  as  "the  winter 
of  the  deep  snow,"  people  gathered  hastily  through  the 
unabated  storm  when  word  went  around  that  Shickshack 
had  been  brought  in  frozen  to  death.  Lincoln  and  Anty- 
wine,  in  silent  agreement,  stopped  the  ox  sled  they  had 
borrowed,  at  the  door  of  Rutledge's  tavern.  Neither  said, 
"  Let  us  take  him  to  his  own  cabin."  In  death,  at  least, 
he  should  escape  from  the  environment  which  Sally 
made,  and  be  publicly  honored. 

Antywine  went  directly  to  carry  the  news  to  the 
widow,  and  Sally  heard  it,  making  a  clicking  sound  of 
disapproval  with  her  tongue. 

She  knocked  the  ashes  out  of  her  cob  pipe,  partly  on 
the  hearth  and  partly  in  the  dinner  pot,  which  hung  from 
the  crane. 

"  Now  don't  that  beat  ye  !  Gone  and  froze  hisself  to 
death  the  first  big  snow,  and  New  Salem  seven  miles 
from  a  buryin'  ground  !  He  always  was  the  most  ill-con- 
venient old  Injan  !  Took  him  to  the  tavern,  did  ye?" 

"  Yes,"  replied  Antywine,  without  apology. 

"Well,  keep  him  there.  I'll  come  to  the  funeral. 
Funerals  is  no  novelty  to  me,  buryin*  men  as  often  as  I 
have." 

Neighbors  talked  in  whispers  around  the  dignified 
figure  stretched  on  a  white-covered  board  under  an  oblong 
canopy  of  sheets.     But  Antywine  and  Lincoln  had  them- 

59 


Spanish  Peggy 


selves  washed  it,  and  dressed  it  in  the  Sac's  best  buck- 
skins. They  found  girded  around  the  waist  a  heavy  belt 
of  rattlesnake  skin. 

"  This  is  the  snakeskin  of  money  belonging  to  Peggy 
that  he  told  me  about,"  Lincoln  said  to  Antywine.  "He 
must  have  taken  it  out  of  its  hiding-place  before  he 
started  to  find  Dick  Yates.    What  shall  we  do  with  it?" 

"  Put  it  on,  Sieur  Abe,  to  wear  for  her,  as  Shickshack 
did." 

"  They  say  snakeskin  in  the  hat  is  good  for  the  head- 
ache; but  I  don't  think  I  could  bear  it  rubbing  against  my 
naked  hide.     This  belt  is  nearer  your  size,  Antywine." 

"  Me,  I  am  a  boy,  Sieur  Abe.  Shickshack  put  his 
trust  in  you.     He  tell  you  I  am  a  squaw!" 

"  1  reckon  he  changed  his  opinion.  He  only  struck 
out  to  find  Dick  because  we  were  away.  But  you're  a 
little  nearer  than  nearest  of  kin  to  Peggy,  so  if  you  say 
Tm  to  undertake  the  thing,  I'll  try  it.  And  if  Mother 
Eve  is  too  strong  in  me  to  stand  the  snake  next  to  me 
I'll  manage  it  some  other  way." 

Lincoln  and  Antywine  also  helped  the  cooper  make 
Shickshack's  coffin,  for  neighbor  was  then  obliged  to 
depend  upon  neighbor  for  such  a  service.  No  fee  was 
ever  charged,  though  if  one  was  offered  it  had  to  be 
accepted. 

Religion  did  little  to  soften  the  grimness  of  death  in 
those  early  days.  The  unpainted  coffin  stood  on  two 
chairs  in  the  largest  room  of  the  tavern,  and  Mahala 
Cameron's  father,  hymn  book  in   hand,  placed   himself 

60 


Spanish  Peggy 


behind  it  as  behind  an  intrenchment,  whence  he  could 
launch  warnings  on  the  uncertainty  of  life.  His  father, 
called  old  Daddy  Cameron,  a  tremulous  and  toothless 
creature,  who  encountered  age  as  a  disease  rather  than  a 
transition,  sat  by,  sighing,  as  if  to  illustrate  the  unpleas- 
antness of  life's  certainty. 

Such  funeral  rites  as  New  Salem  afforded  were  held 
in  the  early  forenoon,  because  snow  continued  to  fall,  and 
seven  miles  of  drift  had  to  be  cut  through  to  Concord 
burying  ground.  The  entire  population,  as  well  as  men 
from  Clary's  Grove,  crowded  the  tavern.  People  stared 
when  Don  Pedro  Lorimer  came  in  with  Redmond  Clary, 
richly  and  warmly  dressed,  as  if  he  had  not  found  it 
unprofitable  to  plead  the  annexation  of  Cuba.  His  shin- 
ing black  hair  and  olive  face  had  a  placid,  worldly  look. 
One  hard-working  woman  whispered  to  another  that  you 
would  not  think  butter  could  melt  in  his  mouth,  and  he 
appeared  the  last  man  to  rob  an  orphan  or  to  run  her  ofF 
with  him  against  her  will. 

Peggy  saw  him  through  her  tears  with  indignation. 
She  sat  beside  Antywine  on  one  of  three  chairs  which 
Ann  Rutledge  placed  at  the  head  of  the  coffin  for  Shick- 
shack's  family.  But  the  third  chair  remained  vacant 
until  the  preacher  stood  in  embarrassment,  undecided 
whether  or  not  to  raise  a  hymn  while  all  the  mourners 
gathered. 

Shickshack's  widow  finally  entered  the  tavern  muffled 
from  the  snow  in  a  blanket,  carrying  a  basket  on  her  arm. 
The  crowded  assembly  opened  to  let  her  pass.    She  set  her 

6i 


Spanish  Peggy- 


basket  down,  and  with  a  vicious  pounce  took  Antywine 
and  Peggy  both  by  the  ear.  Antywine  visibly  restrained 
himself  and  walked  unresisting  with  Peggy  to  the  foot  of 
the  coffin.  Sally  shoved  their  chairs  after  them,  and 
returned  to  her  own  place  as  chief  mourner. 

"This  isn't  your  funeral  ! "  the  bereaved  woman 
explained  sourly  to  them.  "  He  wasn't  no  kin  to  either 
of  ye!" 

Solemn-featured  neighbors  relaxed  in  countenance  and 
looked  sidelong  at  one  another.  They  watched  Sally  lay 
off  the  blanket  and  take  from  her  basket  a  rusty  mourn- 
ing shawl,  a  black  bonnet,  and  crape  veil.  In  this  regalia, 
kept  for  her  husbands'  funerals,  she  dressed  herself  pub- 
licly, and,  having  completed  her  preparations,  sat  down, 
heaving  a  deep  sigh.  The  sight  of  her  beard  under 
widow's  weeds  so  affected  one  of  the  Grove  boys  that  he 
disgraced  himself  by  an  audible  snort.  He  did  not  mind 
disturbing  meeting,  but  a  funeral  was  different ;  and  he 
whispered  apologetically  to  the  man  beside  him :  "  I  bet 
God  laughed  when  He  made  that  woman ! " 

Candles  were  lighted  in  the  tavern  before  the  mascu- 
line population  of  New  Salem — for  only  those  went  who 
could  shovel  snow  and  help  dig  a  grave — returned  from 
burying  Shickshack.  A  river  of  icy  air  flowing  out  of 
the  northwest  had  by  that  time  cleared  the  storm  away. 
Peggy  and  Antywine  were  to  spend  the  second  night  of 
their  peculiar  orphanage  at  the  Rutledges',  in  order  to 
settle  the  business  of  Peggy's  own  inheritance,  which 
Shickshack  had  silently  passed  on  to  his  successors. 

62 


Spanish  Peggy 


They  sat  down  with  Lincoln  and  Ann  Rutledge  in 
the  best  room,  and  he  put  the  rattlesnake  skin  before 
them  on  a  table.  Peggy  looked  at  it  curiously,  having 
never  before  seen  her  fortune,  or  the  case  which  held  it. 
The  spots  described  by  scales  made  her  shudder.  Ann 
also  saw  it  with  aversion,  and  wondered  why  Shickshack 
preferred  that  to  a  strong  piece  of  buckskin. 

"A  rattlesnake,"  said  Lincoln,  "  when  you  get  over 
the  first  shock  of  introduction  to  him,  is  a  mighty  pretty 
fellow.  See  his  combine  of  colors  !  He  has  lost  his  first 
freshness  and  his  rattles,  trying  to  bruise  the  tough  hide 
of  mankind.  But  I  doubt  if  he  ever  stung  anybody;  he 
wouldn't  unless  he  was  crowded." 

Through  an  open  door  the  tavern  kitchen  displayed 
a  roaring  hearth,  where  the  Dutch  oven,  with  coals  on  its 
head  and  beneath  its  feet,  held  a  joint  of  venison.  A 
coffee  pot,  standing  on  a  trivet  over  embers,  sent  per- 
fume abroad.  Johnnycakes  of  parched  corn  ground  in 
the  hand-mill  were  browning  on  boards  slanted  toward 
the  fire — "the  best  bread  that  ever  was  e't !  "  testifies  a 
surviving  New  Salemite.  Hominy  hissing  in  pork  fat 
sent  its  song  through  the  room,  while  the  younger  Rut- 
ledge  girls  helped  their  mother  bring  to  the  table  cold 
turkey,  cream  and  butter,  fruits  preserved  in  maple  syrup, 
and  honey  found  in  the  wild-bee  tree. 

Plenty  of  food,  an  abundance  of  candle-light,  and 
the  heartening  warmth  of  the  Franklin  stove  near  her, 
may  have  suggested  visions  to  Peggy  as  she  inquired  of 
her  friends,  "What  must  I  do  with  this  money  ?  " 

63 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  Sieur  Abe  has  kept  it  safe,"  suggested  Antywine. 

"  There  is  no  one  trustier  !  "  spoke  Ann. 

"Will  you  keep  it  for  me,  Mr.  Lincoln?" 

"  I  am  not  a  good  money-getter,"  he  laughed,  "and  I 
doubt  if  I  am  a  good  money-keeper.  The  only  thing 
I  could  do  would  be  to  carry  it  around  for  you  and  guar- 
antee it  shouldn't  fall  into  worse  hands." 

"  The  sweetheart  knows  you  are  the  strongest  man  in 
New  Salem,"  said  Antywine,  resting  his  cheek  upon  his 
hand  and  lifting  eyes  of  confidence  to  his  elder. 

"  But  I  haven't  measured  with  Clary's  Grove  yet." 

"Antywine  and  I  both  know,"  said  Peggy,  "  how 
everybody  looks  up  to  you.  We  could  not  keep  it  our- 
selves as  well  as  you  could  do  it  for  us,  Mr.  Lincoln." 

Ann  stretched  out  one  slim,  long-fingered  hand  to 
caress  Peggy's  cheek. 

"Well,  children,  I'm  of  age,  and  Ann  is  eighteen.  I 
reckon  we'll  have  to  father  and  mother  you.  Do  you 
know  how  much  money  you  have  in  this  bank  of  Shick- 
shack's,  Peggy  ? " 

"I  don't." 

"  Do  you  know,  Antywine .?  " 

"  Me  ?  No.  I  have  never  inquire',  and  Shickshack 
have  not  sho'  me." 

"  If  the  trust  is  to  be  put  into  my  hands  I  must  know 
the  amount." 

Lincoln  untied  the  leather  cord  which  bound  the 
snake's  neck,  and  shook  it  by  the  tail.  Out  gushed  all 
the  yellow  pieces  with  the  ring  of  gold  upon  the  table ; 

64 


Spanish  Peggy 


Spanish  doubloons  and  French  louis,  which  cost  him 
some  trouble  to  calculate.  He  set  them  in  cylindrical 
piles,  row  after  row.  Wood  snapped  in  the  open  Frank- 
lin stove,  and  no  other  sound  could  be  heard  in  the  room 
but  the  liquid  clink  of  gold.  Ann  and  Peggy  and  Anty- 
wine  watched  the  counting. 

Viane  Rutledge,  looking  through  the  door  at  the 
silent  company,  beckoned  little  Jane  to  stare  at  such 
amazing  wealth. 

"  Whose  is  it  ?  "  whispered  Jane. 

"  Peggy  Shickshack's,  of  course.  Where  would  Anty- 
wine  La  Chance,  or  Mr.  Abe  Lincoln,  or  Ann  get  it? 
The  old  Indian  must  have  been  a  miser.  But  I  wouldn't 
be  her — and  a  Spaniard — for  all  her  money." 

"  Two  thousand  and  fifty  dollars,"  announced  Lin- 
coln.    He  began  to  return  the  gold  to  its  pouch. 

"Two  thousand  dollars  is  a  large  amount,"  said  Ann. 

"Am  I  very  rich  ?  "  inquired  Peggv. 

"  Well,  one  hundred  dollars  will  buy  eighty  acres  of 
land,  or  two  horses.  You  are  therefore  worth  sixteen 
hundred  acres  of  land,  and  something  over  for  calico  and 
linsey;  and,  considering  the  times  and  the  country,  may 
call  yourself  fairly  well  off." 

"  Must  I  buy  sixteen  hundred  acres  of  land?  " 

Lincoln's  eyes  twinkled,  losing  for  a  moment  their 
usual  expression  of  dark  blue  wistfulness.  He  was  not 
much  older  than  the  Canadian  boy  who  venerated  him  as 
an  oracle,  but  he  had  already  begun  to  guide  the  destinies 
of  others. 

6s 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  You'd  better  let  your  husband  decide  that  matter 
when  you  are  older,"  he  answered,  and  while  the  words 
were  being  spoken,  Pedro  Lorimer  entered  the  tavern  in  a 
whirl  of  winter  air.  He  closed  the  outer  door,  made  his 
salutations  with  grace,  and  approached  the  table  where  the 
money  counters  sat.  Lincoln  deliberately  filled  the  snake 
skin,  tied  its  neck  shut,  and  sat  with  it  in  his  large  hands, 
pleasantly  returning  the  visitor's  greeting.  The  tavern 
was  free  to  all  comers.  Yet  Antywine  at  once  stood  up 
in  front  of  Peggy,  his  blond  head  towering  above  the 
swart  arrival. 

"  What  you  do  here,  eh  ?  You  drive  Shickshack 
around,  so  he  die  in  the  drift !  When  I  see  you  to-day  I 
think  I  will  throw  you  in  the  street !  Go  off — get  some 
states  hannex*  to  Cuba !  " 

"  My  pretty  fellow,"  returned  Pedro  Lorimer,  "  I  rode 
here  through  very  biting  cold  to  see  my  young  cousin.  I 
shall  now  take  charge  of  her." 

"  Tell  him  I  won't  go  with  him,  Antywine,"  said  Peggy. 
The  gentleman  must  understand,"  spoke  Lincoln, 
that  he  cannot  force  his  guardianship  on  a  girl  of 
Peggy's  age — except  by  kidnaping.  We  folks  in  New 
Salem  have  not  measured  ourselves  with  the  great  peo- 
ple in  the  world,  but  we  rather  reckon  that  a  New 
Orleans  gambler  would  make  a  mighty  poor  guardian." 

The  foreigner's  olive  skin,  chilled  by  the  cold  from 
which  he  had  just  entered,  took  a  swift  greenish  pallor. 
He  stepped  forward  hissing,  and  snapped  his  fingers  in 
Lincoln's  face.     Antywine  was  upon    him  like  a  tiger, 

66 


(C 

it 


Spanish  Peggy 


dragging  him  to  the  door,  throwing  him   out  into   the 
snow,  and  shooting  the  bolt  behind  him. 

"  Goody ! "  Peggy  exclaimed  with  passionate  approval. 

Ann  put  her  hands  to  her  eyes  and  Lincoln  laughed. 

"Take  care,  Antywine." 

The  oiled  paper  of  the  window  through  which  Peggy 
had  watched  Ann  Rutledge  from  the  hand-mill,  was 
slashed  by  a  knife.  Antywine  flattened  himself  against 
the  door.  The  knife  shot  past  his  head  and  stuck  quiv- 
ering in  the  opposite  wall. 

If  New  Salem  folks  had  distrusted  this  erratic  and 
intermittent  visitor  from  the  first,  they  quite  made  up 
their  minds  about  him  when  he  disappeared  once  more 
after  Shickshack's  funeral.  It  became  generally  known 
how  he  had  followed  that  poor  Indian  to  rob  a  girl.  The 
winter  of  the  deep  snow  gave  shut-in  householders  plenty 
of  time  to  talk.  The  fact  that  Pedro  Lorimer  had  been 
harbored  at  Clary's  Grove  added  no  sweetness  to  his 
reputation.  Some  were  afraid  he  would  come  back  and 
organize  the  wild  spirits  there  for  any  kind  of  local  annex- 
ation which  might  strike  his  fancy.  But  the  northern 
winter,  from  which  a  tropical  nature  shrank,  went  by 
without  disturbance.  If  Black  Hawk  had  stirred  in  the 
Northwest,  he  settled  down  to  wait  a  better  season.  People 
no  longer  rode  in  sleds  over  buried  stake-and-ridered 
fences.  Vast  white  frosted  loaves  of  prairies,  and  forests 
standing  knee-deep  in  snow,  returned  to  their  natural 
aspect.  Streams  ran  brimful,  and  Rock  Creek  covered 
half  the  valley  during  the  spring  thaw. 

67 


Spanish  Peggy- 


Peggy  had  plenty  of  chances  to  loan  her  money  at  a 
high  rate  of  interest  to  impecunious  people,  with  little 
prospect  of  getting  it  back.  Lincoln  said  he  was  not  a 
good  adviser,  for  he  had  failed  at  storekeeping,  and  made 
debts  which  must  cost  him  years  of  hard  work.  But  it 
appeared  to  him  that  her  gold  was  safer  in  the  snakeskin 
coiled  around  his  waist  than  it  would  be  turned  into  any- 
thing else,  until  she  could  buy  and  hold  land. 

Antywine  and  Peggy  had  gone  back  to  Sally's  cabin. 
But  as  the  season  advanced  and  it  was  time  to  take  up 
the  work  of  surveying  again,  Antywine  consulted  Lin- 
coln. 

"I  have  make  up  my  mind,"  he  declared,  "not  to 
live  with  that  woman  some  more  at  all.  She  have  my 
father's  goods,  and  her  first  man's  goods,  and  Shickshack's 
cabin.  She  is  well  off.  There  is  that  Onslow  house  at 
the  west  end  of  the  road.  I  can  buy  it  myself  for  some 
trade.     We  will  keep  house." 

"  Peggy  and  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Antywine,  with  innocent  enthusiasm. 
"  I  will  take  care  of  her.  Me,  I  can  make  moccasins  ;  I 
can  kill  plenty  deer  and  cure  venison.  When  I  am  away 
with  you  to  carry  the  chain,  she  can  bar  the  door  and 
keep  Sally  out,  and  I  sleep  easy.  I  not  sleep  easy,  Sieur 
Abe,  to  go  away  and  leave  her  alone  with  that  Sally,  who 
may  cast  an  evil  eye  or  a  stick  of  wood  at  her  the  min- 
ute my  back  is  turn' !  " 

"  You  better  put  off  the  housekeeping  until  we  come 
home,"    suggested   Lincoln,    smiling,    "and    let    Peggy 

68 


Spanish  Peggy 


board  at  the  tavern  while  we  are  away.  She  has  plenty 
of  money." 

Antywine's  blue  eyes  flashed  joy  at  the  unfolding  of 
this  brilliant  plan.  He  had  never  thought  of  Peggy's 
money  as  currency  which  might  be  put  to  use.  It  was 
simply  a  valuable  possession,  hoarded  for  her. 

Peggy  was  directly  received  into  the  Rutledge  family, 
where  she  had  an  abundance  of  good  food  and  Ann's 
teaching  and  companionship  for  a  stipulated  sum  in  shil- 
lings and  fips  amounting  to  less  than  two  dollars  a  week. 
To  her  it  was  a  season  of  joy  and  rapid  development. 
Viane  Rutledge,  herself  budding  into  girlhood,  watched 
the  Spaniard  with  surprise  and  reluctant  approval.  Peggy's 
angles  disappeared.  She  shot  up  taller.  Her  lissome 
limbs  were  round,  and  her  halting  step  without  a  crutch 
had  an  appealing  charm.  Her  little  face  gathered  a  sweet- 
ness which  provoked  kisses ;  it  had  the  clean  polish  of  a 
flower  petal.  She  was  so  good  and  so  happy,  so  busy 
learning  how  to  manage  the  affairs  of  daily  hving,  and  so 
glad  to  draw  her  breath,  that  everybody  said,  "  She  is 
growing  pretty  !  Whoever  imagined  that  little  weazened 
Spaniard  would  turn  out  like  this  ?  " 

Antywine  and  Lincoln  were  away  until  early  June. 
They  came  driving  an  ox-wagon  from  the  west  into  New 
Salem  one  evening  at  sunset,  and  drew  up  at  the  vacant 
cabin  which  Antywine  intended  to  make  his  own.  It 
stood  waiting  for  him  in  primitive  security.  The  ox- 
wagon  carried  a  squat,  low  chest  of  drawers,  evidently 
bought  at  second-hand,  but  bright  and  rosy  through  its 

69 


Spanish  Peggy 


old  mahogany  surface,  and  Antywine's  first  housekeep- 
ing investment.  Lincoln  helped  him  unload  it,  and  they 
set  it  on  the  sward  before  the  cabin  door. 

"  I  Hft  him  into  the  house  myself,"  said  Antywine. 
So  Lincoln  drove  the  borrowed  cattle  on,  knowing  he  was 
welcome  to  put  them  into  anybody's  pasture  until  he  and 
his  chain  bearer  returned  them. 

Antywine  opened  the  door  of  the  playhouse  he  was 
intending  to  make  for  Peggy.  Though  the  sensitive  part 
of  him,  which  Peggy  said  was  like  a  woman,  quivered 
with  delight,  he  had  a  free,  bold  spirit,  ready  to  dare  any- 
thing. On  long  tramps  and  rides  and  through  days  of 
mechanical  labor  with  a  master  mind  he  had  been  coming 
to  his  own  as  a  man. 

"There's  a  mighty  diiFerence,"  Lincoln  once  said  to 
him,  "between  studying  with  the  outside  of  your  eyeballs 
and  studying  with  your  eyes  open  clear  to  the  bottom  of 
your  brain." 

Antywine  saw  that  new  oiled  paper  would  have  to  be 
put  into  the  weather-beaten  windows,  over  which  Peggy 
would  hang  short  white  curtains,  perhaps,  like  those  that 
could  be  shoved  apart  on  strings  at  the  tavern.  He 
selected  the  corner  for  his  chest  of  drawers,  and  was 
silently  calculating  how  long  it  would  take  to  turn  out 
chairs  and  tables  at  the  cooper's  shop,  when  the  smell  of 
a  cob  pipe  made  him  shut  the  door  to  keep  Sally  from 
looking  into  his  house.  Sally  had  come  up  behind  him  and 
was  examining  the  chest  of  drawers.  In  earlier  days, 
before  beard  grew  upon  her  face,  or  avarice  and  vindic- 

70 


— V 


"sally  was  examining  the  chest  of  drawers 


OI^IVERSITY  OF  ILLINUfS 


Spanish  Peggy 


tiveness  hewed  it,  her  piercing  black  eyes  may  have 
been  admired.     She  fixed  them  on  Antywine. 

He  touched  his  cap  with  the  courtesy  his  father  had 
taught  him  to  show  all  women,  and  said,  "  Good  day, 
Sally."  He  heard  Lincoln's  gee-hawing  to  the  oxen  turn 
to  "  W'oa,  Buck  !  "  and  saw  that  Slicky  Green  and  young 
Yates  had  come  down  the  road  to  meet  the  surveyor. 

"  Have  you  heard  about  Peggy's  death  ? "  inquired 
Sally. 

"  Her  death  ?  "  Antywine  repeated. 

"Yes.      She  was  buried  a  week  ago." 


71 


iDir 

^^  "1"  NOT  believe  you  !  "  said  Antywine. 

I         "  You  can  ask  them  Rutledges,  then,  that  was 
hired  to  take  such  fine  care  of  her  !     Why  don't 
you  go  and  ask  them  ?  " 

"I  not  beheve  you!"  trembled  Antywine.  He  sat 
down  on  the  doorstep  holding  his  blinded  head  between 
his  hands. 

"You  and  Peggy  thought  you  would  go  to  your- 
selves, didn't  you  ?  But  she  lays  in  Concord  buryin'- 
ground  now,  right  alongside  of  Shickshack ;  and  you 
know  where  he  lays.     The  new  grave's  there." 

"  I  not  believe  you !  I  not  believe  you  !  I  not 
believe  you ! " 

Antywine  leaped  from  the  doorsill  and  ran  like  a  deer 
to  the  tavern,  passing  the  young  men  and  the  oxen  with- 
out noticing  or  hearing  them.  Ann  Rutledge  was  sew- 
ing by  an  open  window  with  her  back  toward  him.  The 
two  younger  girls  were  in  the  garden  with  their  mother. 
He  did  not  see  Peggy  anywhere.  A  hush  was  upon  the 
house,  and  as  Ann  turned  and  saw  him  with  a  frightened 
look  on  her  face,  he  could  not  ask  any  question,  but 
took  the  path  down  to  Rock  Creek,  and  ran  to  the  stone 
where  Peggy  used  to  hide  her  book  for  him.     The  sun 

72 


Ul^lVERSITY  OF  ILUNOIS 


"  RAIN    BEAT    UPON    ANTYWINE    THROUGH    SAPLING    BOUGHS 


Spanish  Peggy 


was  down  and  a  ribbon  of  mist  wavered  in  front  of  the 
closed  schoolhouse. 

Nobody  would  ever  wait  for  him  at  that  rock  again. 
He  ran  along  the  ravine  below  the  gardens  and  returned 
to  his  house,  barring  the  door  and  drawing  the  latch- 
string  in.  Lying  on  the  floor  in  the  darkest  corner,  he 
hid  his  weeping,  and  made  no  answer  to  the  young 
men,  who  called  his  name  through  the  window. 

Sally  was  asleep  in  her  own  cabin  long  before 
Antywine  crept  out  of  his  and  took  the  road  to  Con- 
cord burying-ground.  It  was  a  long  walk  under  blurred 
stars,  for  the  wind  changed  after  midnight,  belying  the 
promise  of  a  fair  sunset. 

Antywine  tried  to  bring  Peggy's  face  before  him,  with 
its  many  flitting  expressions.  Her  eyes  were  hazel,  or 
black,  or  gray,  by  changeable  turns,  swarming  with  points 
of  light.  He  remembered  drinking  from  the  gourd  after 
her,  on  the  very  side  where  she  had  drank,  and  the 
pleased  trembling  of  her  lips  when  she  noticed  it.  All  the 
ways  and  traits  which  went  to  the  making  of  the  com- 
panion he  called  sweetheart  were  present  to  his  mind, 
when  groping  among  saplings  in  the  thinly  peopled 
burying-ground  he  came  to  Shickshack's  sunken  grave 
which  he  had  himself  helped  to  make,  and  found  a  fresh 
clay  hillock  beside  it. 

The  latter  part  of  the  night  rain  poured  upon  the 
chest  of  drawers  which  Antywine  had  left  standing  in 
front  of  the  cabin  and  streamed  down  its  polished  sides. 
Rain  beat  upon  Antywine  through  sapling  boughs,  satu- 

73 


Spanish  Peggy 


rating  his  linsey  hunting-shirt  and  darkening  his  worn 
buckskins. 

Drenched  grass  and  a  tangle  of  little  trees  he  scarcely- 
felt  or  saw  when  sodden  and  miserable  daylight  came. 
By  the  end  of  the  afternoon  some  light  crept  out  from 
sunset,  and  there  was  a  clearing  up  in  the  west.  Lincoln 
climbed  the  burying-ground  fence,  and  found  Antywine 
lying  asleep  across  the  new-made  grave.  He  was  so 
ghastly  that  Lincoln  at  once  shook  him,  feeling  relieved 
when  he  opened  his  eyes. 

The  boy  looked  up  at  the  mole  like  a  warm  pulsing 
heart  on  his  friend's  cheek.  But  his  friend's  eyes 
twinkled. 

"  What  are  you  doing  here  on  old  Daddy  Cameron's 
grave,  Antywine?  " 

Antywine  sprang  as  from  a  rattlesnake.  He  was 
exhausted,  so  that  Lincoln  gave  him  both  hands  to  help 
him  rise. 

"  Daddy  Cameron  died  last  week  and  they  buried  him 
in  the  same  row  with  Shickshack.  He  was  a  fine  old 
man,  but  if  I  were  you  I  wouldn't  lie  out  all  night  and 
all  day  on  his  grave  !  " 

"  Sally  have  tell  me  this  is  where  she  is  bury' !  " 

"Who?     Peggy?" 

"  Yes,  Sieur  Abe.     Where  is  she  ?  " 

"At  the  tavern." 

"She  is  not  dead?" 

"  Not  a  bit !  " 

"But  Sally  have  tell  me—" 

74 


Spanish  Peggy 


"  Haven't  you  summered  and  wintered  Sally  long 
enough  to  know  when  she  is  paying  you  a  grudge?  " 

"But  I  run  to  the  tavern  myself — " 

"And  scare  Ann,  and  run  away  again  without  asking 
any  questions.  I've  had  a  long  jaunt  through  the  mud 
and  searched  the  better  part  of  a  day  for  you." 

Antywine  threw  his  arms  around  Lincoln  and  sobbed 
and  laughed  like  a  woman.  He  swayed,  and  could 
scarcely  stand. 

"You've  made  yourself  sick  being  so  downhearted, 
when  you  ought  to  have  kept  your  wits.  That  Lorimer 
fellow  is  back  at  the  Grove  again,  and  he's  making  a 
bold  stand  now.  If  he  had  known  I  carry  the  snakeskin 
I  reckon  he  would  have  followed  our  chain.  But  Dick 
Yates  is  here.  We  tried  to  find  you  last  night,  and 
couldn't." 

"  I  tell  Sally  I  not  believe  her  ! "  shivered  Antywine. 

"And  then  you  leg  it  out  here  and  pass  a  sentimental 
night  and  watery  day  on  Daddy  Cameron's  grave  !  I'm 
surprised  at  you  ! " 

The  American  way  of  joking  over  what  had  been 
tragedy  seemed  delicious  to  the  Canadian  boy  as  he 
tramped  back  the  long  seven  miles.  When  he  reached 
his  house  at  the  end  of  the  village  Lincoln  did  not  think 
it  advisable  to  take  him  any  farther.  Antywine  was  so 
ill  that  he  lay  down  upon  the  floor,  resisting  any  sugges- 
tion of  food. 

Through  delirious  eyes  he  saw  the  blaze,  which  Lin- 
coln contrived  to  start  in  the  chimney,  interlace  sticks 

75 


Spanish  Peggy 


piled  there  months  before  in  readiness  for  a  first  house- 
warming. 

Lincoln  was  on  his  knees  blowing  it  when  he  heard 
Slicky  Green  pant  through  the  door: 

"  Are  you  here,  Abe  ?  You're  wanted  at  the  tav- 
ern. 

"  What's  the  matter  at  the  tavern  ?  " 

"  The  Grove  boys  are  coming  to  throw  everything  out 
of  doors  if  you  don't  give  that  Lorimer  man  the  Span- 
iard and  her  money." 

How  do  you  know  ?  " 

Martha  Bell  Clary  slipped  off  on  her  father's  horse 
and  brought  word." 

"Where's  Dick?" 

"  He's  looking  somewhere  else  for  you." 

Lincoln  stood  up  and  glanced  at  Antywine,  who  had 
suffered,  but  was  unable  to  fight,  resting  like  a  log  at  the 
hearth  corner. 

"  Poor  Antywine  !"  he  whispered,  and  carefully  shut 
the  door  as  he  went  out  to  settle  the  unconscious  boy's 
fate. 

The  self-appointed  censors  of  the  Grove  had  once 
wrecked  a  store  in  New  Salem,  and  kicked  the  merchan- 
dise about  the  street.  The  population  of  the  village  was 
about  one  hundred  souls,  few  of  whom  could  be  mus- 
tered as  fighting  men;  while  the  Grove  males  were  all 
fighting  men. 

The  night  was  starlit  and  cloudless,  but  there  was  no 
moon.     Dull  panes  of  oiled  paper  revealed  candles  in 

76 


Spanish  Peggy 


some  houses,  but  a  hush  like  expectation  seemed  to 
stretch  along  the  unseen  windings  of  the  street.  When 
the  Grove  boys  mounted  for  a  raid  of  any  sort  they 
usually  rode  at  full  gallop,  yelling  like  Indians.  Lincoln 
was  ahead  of  Slicky  Green  in  the  race  to  the  tavern, 
when  both  stopped,  halted  by  a  procession  with  lanterns. 
There  had  been  no  noise  of  shouting  and  no  crash  of  de- 
struction. The  quiet  approach  of  the  company  seemed 
worse  than  its  ordinary  rioting. 

"  They  didn't  stop  at  the  tavern  !  "  whispered  Slicky 
Green. 

They  had  been  to  the  tavern,  for  Dick  Yates,  bare- 
headed, was  leading  them  peaceably  away  from  it,  walk- 
ing in  front  of  the  cavalcade  ;  and  a  girl's  figure  could  be 
discerned  sitting  upon  a  led  horse.  The  velvet  dust  of  a 
village  road  muffled  the  tread  of  hoofs.  But  along  house 
fronts  on  each  side,  where  footpaths  were  marked  by 
daily  use,  sounded  the  uneven  patter  of  many  feet.  Men, 
women,  and  children  of  New  Salem,  suffered  to  witness 
what  they  could  not  prevent,  were  hovering  around  Lin- 
coln and  the  little  Spaniard.  He  thought  he  saw  Ann 
Rutledge,  in  her  short-sleeved  house  dress,  her  face 
showing  white  and  anxious  through  the  dark ;  and  Min- 
ter  Grayham,  whose  haggardness  and  puny  strength 
the  Grove  boys  would  have  laughed  at  if  opposed  to 
them. 

"  Here  is  Abe  Lincoln,"  announced  Yates ;  and  as  if 
he  had  given  a  command  to  halt,  the  company  halted, 

"Here  I  am,"  said  Lincoln.     "Do  you  want  me?" 

77 


Spanish  Peggy 


Dick  and  Slicky  stood  beside  him  in  the  middle  of  the 
road. 

"  My  friends  and  I,"  spoke  a  voice  with  a  foreign 
accent,  "  have  an  affair  of  two  minutes  with  you.  You 
have  somewhere  a  snakeskin  purse  belonging  to  my 
cousin,  Consuelo  Lorimer.  Bring  it,  and  you  shall  not 
be  injured." 

"  But  if  I  did  she'd  be  injured  !" 

"  Don't  let  him  take  me,  Mr.  Lincoln ! "  besought 
Peggy  from  the  midst  of  the  riders.  "  I  will  not  go ! 
Where's  Antywine  ? " 

Boys,  you  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourselves !  " 
We  didn't  come  out  for  a  speech,  Abe,"  mocked 
Redmond  Clary. 

"  And  I'm  not  practicing  polemics." 

"You  get  the  girl's  money  and  hand  it  over." 

"You  let  her  out  of  that  gang." 

The  gang  growled. 

"  We  have  a  crowd  and  you  have  just  two  backers. 
New  Salem  people  can't  do  anything.  We  don't  want 
to  hurt  you,  Abe,  unless  we  have  to." 

"  String  him  up  like  a  horsethief !  "  cried  a  man  at  the 
rear. 

"  Are  you  going  to  hand  over  the  Spaniard's  money?" 

"  No,  I'm  not,"  replied  Lincoln. 

"  Ride  him  down !  "  cried  another,  and  the  horses 
were  spurred  forward.  Some  women  and  children 
shrieked  in  fright  as  the  three  young  fellows  were  driven 
in  retreat  to  Antywine's  cabin  and  sprang  upon  the  chest 

78 


Spanish  Peggy 


of  drawers.  Standing  close  together  with  that  short  ros- 
trum under  their  feet,  they  faced  about  the  ring  of  horse- 
men who  drew  up  around  them.  The  perforated  tin  lan- 
terns showered  drops  of  yellow  light  on  trampled  grass. 
Behind  the  men's  heads  and  shoulders  were  a  void  of 
trees  and  the  starlit  sky,  and  the  excited  murmur  of  New 
Salem.     Lincoln  towered  in  the  midst  of  the  circle. 

He  could  dimly  see  the  Spanish  girl,  and  he  remem- 
bered for  one  instant  how  Antywine  lay  exhausted  within 
the  cabin.  She  was  looking  for  the  last  time  at  what  was 
to  have  been  her  home,  and  wondering,  with  an  ache  of 
grief  worse  than  her  terror  of  the  ruffians,  what  had 
become  of  the  gentle  housemate  who  had  never  before 
failed  to  take  her  part. 

"  Now  men,  listen  to  me  one  minute,"  exclaimed 
Dick  Yates. 

"We're  not  here  to  listen,"  ruled  the  leader. 

"  These  boys  ought  to  be  put  out,"  one  man 
insisted.     "We  don't  want  them." 

"  Let  my  cousin's  property  be  restored  to  her,"  spoke 
Pedro  Lorimer,  "  without  delay." 

"And  who  are  you  ?  "  demanded  Yates,  the  beauty  of 
his  rosy  youth,  which  had  been  felt  rather  than  seen, 
changing  suddenly  to  the  power  of  a  man  with  irresisti- 
ble magnetism.  His  voice  rolled  out  across  the  wall  of 
rough  faces.  His  eyes  had  scathing  lights.  His  unwill- 
ing listeners  raised  their  lanterns  to  look  at  him.  "  I 
have  been  gathering  facts  about  you  for  more  than  a  year. 
You  are  a  New  Orleans  gambler.     You  ply  your  trade 

79 


Spanish  Peggy 


under  cover  of  some  political  scheme  about  Cuba,  a  place 
you  never  saw.  All  you  want  of  the  poor  young  girl 
sitting  on  the  horse  beside  you,  is  the  handful  of  money 
her  father  contrived  to  hide  from  you.  You  think  it  is 
a  very  large  sum.  It  is  about  two  thousand  dollars.  If 
it  hadn't  been  for  poor  old  Shickshaclc  you  would  have 
robbed  her  long  ago.  You  paid  Shickshack's  half  crazy, 
avaricious  wife  to  send  you  word  where  he  could  be 
found,  every  time  he  moved  to  get  rid  of  you. 

"  These  men  wouldn't  send  a  child  as  helpless  as  one 
of  their  own  sisters  with  you,  if  they  knew  you.  You  play 
the  grandee  before  them.  And  in  the  West  we  always 
have  backed  a  man  up  in  taking  his  own  when  his  rights 
were  denied.  But  the  only  right  you  have  in  this  com- 
munity is  to  be  dipped  in  the  Sangamon!" 

Lincoln,  who  had  seen  a  knife  thrown  at  Antywine's 
head  for  fewer  words,  kept  his  eye  guarding  the  indistinct 
movements  of  the  Spaniard.  An  uneasy  tremor  ran 
around  what  had  been  a  dead  wall  of  antagonism.  But 
unfortunately  Mahala  Cameron's  father  now  lifted  his 
voice  from  the  background,  and  in  the  character  of  min- 
ister exhorted  Redmond  Clary  to  draw  his  followers 
homeward  and  cease  abetting  the  ungodly.  Redmond 
Clary  turned  on  him  and  told  him  to  go  home  himself, 
or  he  might  be  neatly  laid  beside  his  daddy  in  the  Con- 
cord burying-ground. 

One  word  had  swiftly  followed  another  while  Lincoln 
gauged  the  force  drawn  around  him.  His  hair  was  rumpled 
over  the  arch  of  his  head.      His  strong  nose  and  clean- 

80 


Spanish  Peggy 


cut  neck  and  the  outward  curving  of  his  lips  showed  by 
fitful  light  above  his  shorter  companions.  Some  radia- 
tion from  his  personality  made  one  of  the  men  exclaim  : 

"Abe,  we  know  you're  honest.  But  if  you're  too 
stubborn  to  hand  over  that  money  we've  got  a  barrel  at 
the  mill  all  ready  to  roll  you  into  the  river." 

"  Wait !  "  said  Lincoln,  stretching   out  a  long  finger. 

Pedro  Lorimer  hissed  at  him  :  "  I  do  not  wait  while 
boys  practice  speeches  !  I  could  myself  in  return  call 
my  enemies  names.  This  is  not  what  was  prom- 
ised me." 

"  What  Red  Clary  promised  you,"  stated  Lincoln 
with  intuition  which  amounted  to  knowledge,  "  was  if  you 
would  cancel  his  gambling  debts  he  would  make  me  hand 
over  the  little  Spaniard's  money." 

Redmond  Clary  flung  himself  off  his  horse  and  ran  at 
his  accuser.  The  time  for  words  was  past.  If  the  figure 
towering  above  them  all  had  stood  Vv'ith  less  assurance, 
the  raging  leader  might  have  led  his  mob  to  a  cruet  mur- 
der. But  Lincoln's  humorous  eye  spread  a  contagion  of 
smiles  as  he  caught  the  bull-bodied  champion  of  the 
Grove  by  the  collar  and  flung  that  muscular  bulk  across 
the  ring  to  cool. 

There  was  to  be  a  fight.  The  men  drew  deep  inhala- 
tions of  enjoyment.  For  ever  since  Abraham  Lincoln 
appeared  in  New  Salem  they  had  wanted  to  see  him 
matched  with  Red  Clary.  Lincoln  knew  he  was  about 
to  succeed  or  fail  with  the  only  argument  which  could 
move  those  to  whom  might  was   right.      Eloquent  and 

8i 


Spanish   Peggy- 


convincing  words  had  to  be  backed  by  a  man  who  could 
master  his  listeners.  He  was  tired  and  supperless.  The 
Spanish  girl  leaned  down  on  her  horse's  neck,  uncon- 
sciously uttering  prayers  aloud  for  her  champion.  The 
struggle  would  be  over  in  a  few  minutes,  but  if  Red 
Clary  whipped  him  her  future  lay  in  unknown  and  terri- 
ble places.  That  Antywine  was  missing  seemed  a  token 
that  the  worst  must  be  in  store  for  her.  She  was  in  the 
grip  of  an  evil  force. 

Both  men  threw  off  their  roundabouts  and  vests. 
Lincoln  faced  his  two  companions,  making  them  a  screen, 
and  hurriedly  unfastened  the  belt  of  gold  which  he  wore 
under  his  shirt,  and  put  it  in  his  hat.  This  he  gave  to 
Slicky  Green,  who  held  it,  while  Yates  stood  guard. 

"You  were  cut  out  for  a  banker,  Slicky,"  said  Lin- 
coln. "  I  wasn't.  I  might  burst  the  snakeskin  and 
spill  the  money." 

His  opponent  rushed  at  him  like  a  mastiff  let  loose, 
and  Peggy  doubled  herself  lower  upon  the  horse's  neck. 
She  heard  the  impact  of  blows,  which  sent  shudder  after 
shudder  down  her  body,  and  the  panting  of  spent 
breath.  The  Grove  boys  set  up  a  yell,  and  she  stuffed 
the  horse's  mane  into  her  ears.  The  big,  muscular  bully 
who  had  made  everybody  in  the  Sangamon  country 
afraid  of  him,  and  shaped  public  opinion  for  the  Grove, 
was  taking  some  cruel  advantage  of  a  clean  wrestler,  un- 
used to  sledge-hammer  brutality.  Then  a  hush  pene- 
trated even  the  horsehair,  and  Peggy  looked  as  Lincoln 
knocked  Red  Clary   flat  beneath  the   chin   of  a  startled 

8a 


Spanish  Peggy 


animal.     He  fell  against  its  hoofs,  and  being  pulled  into 
the  clear  space  by  one  of  his  friends,  lay  still. 

"  I  reckon,"  said  Lincoln,  pulling  his  own  shirt  collar 
wider  open,  and  sitting  on  the  chest  of  drawers  to  breathe, 
"he  has  the  wind  knocked  out  of  him." 

"  Goody  !  "  Peggy's  own  cry  of  thanksgiving  was  the 
first  sound  heard  by  the  vanquished  man.  He  sat  up, 
blinking  at  those  who  had  seen  him  humbled. 

Lincoln  bent  over  until  his  body  described  a  right 
angle,  and  shook  one  long  horizontal  arm  at  the  unim- 
paneled  jury  who  would  have  to  render  verdict  in  this 
first  case  which  Yates  and  he  had  associated  themselves 
to  win. 

"A  boy,"  he  panted,  "is  like  a  white  dress:  soil  him, 
and  he  can  be  washed  and  made  clean  again.  But  a  girl 
is  like  a  glass  bottle:  if  you  let  her  fall,  or  throw  her  down 
and  break  her,  she  is  broken  forever.  Now,  men,  are  you 
determined  to  have  this  poor  little  bottle  destroyed  ?  " 

There  is  often  speech  where  no  language  is  heard; 
and  Pedro  Lorimer  knew  he  stood  by  himself  from  that 
instant. 

He  spurred  his  horse  toward  Slicky  to  seize  the  hat 
and  break  away  with  it.  But  Antywine  darted  out  of 
the  cabin  and  across  the  open  space  like  a  stroke  of  light, 
intercepting  the  Spaniard.  His  eyes  large  with  fever,  and 
his  high  features  impassioned,  he  had  almost  the  beauty 
of  an  apparition.  As  the  two  encountered,  Antywine 
seized  the  horse's  bits  and  jerked  it  to  its  haunches.  He 
and  Pedro   Lorimer   stared  at  each   other.     Before   the 

83 


Spanish  Peggy- 


rider  found  his  balance  again  Lincoln  asked  with  whim- 
sical significance: 

"  Boys,  how  would  any  of  you  like  to  get  up  out  of 
chill-and-fever,  and  find  all  Clary's  Grove  helping  a 
stranger  rob  you  of  your  own  dear  gal?  " 

A  sympathetic  and  sheepish  grin  seemed  to  relax  as 
much  as  could  be  seen  of  every  rude  face;  and  Pedro 
Lorimer,  throwing  away  caution,  spurred  over  Antywine. 
The  boy  fell,  and  leaped  up,  understanding  it  was  a 
struggle  for  Peggy.  A  whirlpool  of  shouts  and  plunging 
horses,  and  men  scrambling  to  mount,  drove  all  watchers 
back.  Even  Redmond  Clary's  voice  was  heard,  denoun- 
cing the  man  whose  part  he  had  taken.  The  crowd  that 
had  come  down  New  Salem  Street  seeking  Lincoln  went 
back  driving  Pedro  Lorimer. 

Hoi:rified  as  New  Salem  people  were  by  threatened 
violence,  they  were  unable  to  refrain  from  cheering. 
They  crowded  to  the  chest  of  drawers,  where,  left 
stranded  as  by  a  stormy  tide,  sat  Peggy  and  Antywine. 
He  held  the  hat  and  snakeskin  which  Slicky  Green 
thrust  into  his  keeping  before  following  the  ebb.  The 
pair  clung  together,  hearkening  to  no  voices  but  their 
own,  as  two  robins  escaping  from  some  peril  of  man, 
might  have  felicitated  and  comforted  each  other.  The 
air  was  fresh  like  the  breath  of  the  sea  after  a  hot  land 
breeze  has  gone  by. 

Mounted  all  three  upon  the  horse  from  which  Lin- 
coln had  flung  Peggy  to  Antywine,  Lincoln  and  Yates, 
and  Slicky  filling  its  back  from  mane  to  tail,  made  the 

84 


I'" 

UWIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
URBANA 


*'  AND     LOOK    OUT    FEARFULLY     FOR     A     DREADED     FACE  " 


Spanish  Peggy 


best  haste  they  could  to  the  Sangamon.  They  stood  at 
the  top  of  the  terraced  bank  while  Pedro  Lorimer  was 
rolled  down  in  a  barrel. 

Three  times,  tradition  has  it,  the  unhappy  wretch 
took  his  plunge,  and  came  bobbing  up  like  a  buoy. 
Then  Lincoln  and  Yates,  and  the  cooling  effect  of  the 
water  on  those  who  had  him  to  pull  out,  succeeded  in 
moderating  popular  rage  against  him.  He  was  turned 
loose,  and  his  horse  whipped  in  the  direction  of  Spring- 
field, with  emphatic  assurance  that  the  barrel  would  be 
kept  for  him,  and  if  he  ever  came  back  would  be  put  to 
its  final  use  as  his  floating  coffin. 

Don  Pedro  Lorimer  was  never  seen  again  in  that 
country.  When  Peggy  and  Antywine  were  married, 
and  keeping  house  in  their  own  cabin,  she  used  some- 
times to  part  her  white  curtains  at  night,  and  look  out 
fearfully  for  a  dreaded  face.  But  happiness  and  security 
become  a  habit,  and  she  loved  after  a  while  to  tell  her 
own  story. 

Years  later  the  two  who  had  steered  her  destiny — 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  Richard  Yates — began  to  steer 
the  destinies  of  a  nation  and  a  state,  and  the  Spaniard  of 
New  Salem  grew  to  experience  the  grateful  awe  of  a 
person  who  has  been  visited  unawares  by  strong  angels. 


85 


VRD  BROTHERS 

JRARY  BOOK  BINDERS 

JACKSONVILLE.  ILL. 
Process   Pat.   Aug'.    13,   '01 

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